Spanish Super Cup: Lionel Messi involved in heated altercation with 20-year-old Joao Felix - Watch

Spanish Super Cup: Atletico Madrid sprung a surprise in by staging a thrilling comeback to beat Barcelona 3-2 and set up a final against cross-town rivals Real Madrid.

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi was involved in a heated on-field altercation with Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix during the two teams’ Spanish Super Cup clash in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Atletico sprung a surprise in by staging a thrilling comeback to beat Barcelona 3-2 and set up a final against cross-town rivals Real Madrid.

Lionel Messi involved in heated altercation with 20-year-old Joao Felix. (Twitter Image)

Tempers flared between the two sets of players before half-time, when Messi squared-off against 20-year-old Portuguese sensation Felix. The two players took offence with each other and came face-to-face, only to be separated by fellow players.

Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez also joined the fighting party with Thomas Partey and Stefan Savic coming to aid of Felix. The players were then separated after a brief period of shoving and pushing and normalcy was resumed. Barcelona defender Jordi Alba was also captured taking a finger swipe at Felix which angered the latter.

All five goals were scored during a wild second half in Jeddah that began with Koke putting Atletico in front, just 21 seconds after coming on as a substitute at the interval.

Goals from Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann turned the game on its head, only for Atletico to hit back with a late double, Alvaro Morata converting a penalty in the 81st minute before Angel Correa found a winner in the 86th.

“They had more legs than us and in the end it cost us,” said Griezmann.

“We made mistakes in everything, in passes - I think I missed a pass to Sam (Umtiti) before they scored - and the little things can lose you a match, a league, a Champions League.”

((With AFP inputs))