Arsenal’s Night Messed Up
Lionel Messi scores four and puts forth a master class as Barcelona breeze through to semis.
THERE HE GOES AGAIN: Messi score Barcelona’s third
3 down and only 1 to go. Arsenal became the third English team to be knocked out of the Champions League this season, leaving Manchester United to be the only torchbearers left.
The Londoners may feel disappointed, but instead should take pride in being the part of a game when the world’s best player showcased something from another planet.
This was after it had all begun so well for Arsene Wenger’s men. In the 18th minute, completely against the run of play, the home crowd of 98,000 odd was silenced when Nicklas Bendtner gave the visitors a shock lead. Abou Diaby picked out Theo Walcott with a lovely through-ball, but the winger’s pass to Bendtner was a bit inaccurate, allowing Dani Alves to slide in and challenge. This attempt was saved by keeper Victor Valdes, but Bendtner got up quickly, took a touch and finished with the outside of his right foot.
The lead lasted barely two minutes, as what followed was something the Nou Camp faithful would remember forever. In the 20th minute, Messi tried to play Xavi through, but Mikael Silvestre stepped in to block. The Frenchman failed to clear his lines though, and Messi took full advantage of that. He blasted a shot from 20 yards right in between the legs of Silvestre and Thomas Vermaelen and found the top corner of the net, giving Manuel Almunia no chance.
Barcelona started playing with much more confidence from then on, and got their second 15 minutes later. Messi played a beautiful ball through tom Eric Abidal, but the left-back’s cross was behind both Pedro and Bojan Krkic in the box. Arsenal failed to clear properly again and paid the price once more. Pedro reacted first and passed to Messi, who took a touch to go past Gael Clichy, before finishing calmly past Almunia with his weaker right foot.
The Argentine wizard got his hat trick in the 42nd minute. Arsenal were short f numbers at the back, and Seydou Keita’s header found Messi, who ran unchallenged to be one-on-one with Almunia, before audaciously chipping over the Spanish goalie. The finish had class oozing from all corners, and Barcelona, amidst a standing ovation, went into half time leading 3-1 in the night and 5-3 on aggregate.
Arsenal turned the tie around in the last 20 minutes in the first leg, and they needed something similar again. They certainly looked livelier after the break, with Clichy looking to be a constant from the left-hand side. The penetration was lacking though, and none of the forward players touched the ball much.
The game entered the latter stages with the score still at 3-1 and any hopes of an Arsenal comeback were extinguished by Barca’s fourth scored by, surprise, surprise, Messi again. Though being surrounded by three Arsenal defenders, he somehow managed to get his shot away, and after Almunia saved his first effort, he calmly slotted it through his legs to make it 4. It was Messi’s 39th goal of the season, and also made him Barcelona’s second highest goal-scorer in this competition, behind Rivaldo.
For Arsenal though, this equalled their worst ever defeat in the Champions League, after they were beaten by the same scoreline by Spartak Moscow nine years ago.
Even though Wenger was disappointed, he quickly pointed out after the game that they were well-beaten by the world’s best team, and more importantly, the world’s best player.
On the flipside though, Barcelona may have a twinge of worry within them, seeing that they do heavily depend on Messi to provide the goods. Last year, the trio of Messi, Eto’o and Henry functioned efficiently, but now with Eto’o playing for Inter and Henry looking only a shadow of his own self, scoring just 3 this season, Pep Guardiola might have to consider signing a few top quality strikers in the summer.
With Ibrahimovic not firing as expected, any long-term injury to Messi may put the pressure on youngsters Bojan and Pedro, who are certainly not the ones you can count on to produce week in-week out.
Arsenal might take inspiration from the fact that they did manage to score, even without players like Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin and Robin Van Persie in their ranks. And who knows, if they had had these players playing, we might have had a very different story to tell.
Anyway there is still some entertainment left when Arsenal meets Man city on 24 April 2010 in Premier League at Emirates, London
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Source: Barcelona vs Arsenal Review – Arsenals Night Messed Up
Source: Football Blog - Football News
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