The Argentine put his side in the driver's seat heading into the second leg at the Nou Camp but also broke a personal goal-drought against the Blues in the process.
Messi, who has netted 535 career goals, had never scored in eight previous meetings against Chelsea but ended that run by tucking home from Andres Iniesta's cut-back to hand his side the share of the spoils..
And, as ever, social media was quick to react to the little magician bagging his first goal against the west Londoners.
Barcelona's official Twitter account commemorated the moment with an animation of Messi winking beneath the caption: 'Leo Messi n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ scored against Chelsea.'
The Catalan side followed it up with an image of Messi celebrating with Iniesta with two goat emojis symbolising the 'greatest of all time'.