Barcelona storm past Arsenal to qualify for the quarter finals - UEFA Champion’s League update
A brace from Lionel Messi and a goal from Xavi helped FC Barcelona beat Arsenal 3-1 in the second leg of the last 16 round of UEFA Champion’s League at the Camp Nou on Tuesday evening. The Catalans qualify for the quarter finals after winning 4-3 on an aggregate
basis.
Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, made two changes to his starting line-up from the first leg defeat at the Emirates Stadium. Gerard Pique and Maxwell were replaced by Javier Mascherano and Adriano Correia. Eric Abidal and Sergio Busquets started in the
central defence for the hosts. On the other hand, Arsenal made three changes from the team that played in the first leg. Bacary Sagna, Abou Diaby and Tomas Rosicky replaced Emmanuel Eboue, Alexander Song and Theo Walcott.
Barcelona started confidently and enjoyed early possession of the ball. The hosts could have scored in the fourth minute but Laurent Koscielny made a timely tackle to deny Pedro on the edge of the box. Three Minutes later, Koscielny made a superb block on
Lionel Messi to keep him from scoring.
Arsenal faced an early setback when their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny had to be replaced by Manuel Almunia in the 17th minute because of a possible finger dislocation. The Catalans continued their dominance as they created several decent opportunities
to find the opening goal. Arsenal were taking desperate measures to deny the hosts a goal, as they played some ragged challenges on Barcelona players.
Barcelona finally broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time as Andres Iniesta caught Cesc Fabregas in possession and fed Messi in the box, who chipped the ball over Almunia before smashing it into the empty net to make it 1-0 for the hosts.
The Gunners could not threaten the Barca goal even once in the opening 45 minutes but they managed to equalise seven minutes into the second half. Samir Nasri’s corner was headed into his own goal by Busquets to make it 1-1 for the evening, and 3-2 in favour
of Arsenal on aggregate.
The game took an electric pace after the equaliser. Arsenal survived an immediate attack from the hosts and a couple of minutes later, Robin van Persie was shown his second yellow card of the evening for kicking the ball away after the referee had blown
the whistle for an offside. Arsenal were down to ten men.
The Catalan Giants continued their march as they looked to restore their lead but Almunia denied them with a host of saves. Guardiola’s men got their second goal after a wonderful build-up play from Iniesta, David Villa and Xavi, before the latter slipped
the ball beyond Almunia to make it 2-1 and bring them level on aggregate.
Couple of minutes later, Barcelona were awarded a penalty when Koscielny brought down Pedro inside the box. Messi rolled the ball low to the left of Almunia, to make it 3-1 for the evening and 4-3 on aggregate.
The hosts made a barrage of attacks on the Arsenal goal but Almunia denied them with some brilliant goalkeeping. However, the hosts walked off with a well deserved win and have made it into the quarter finals.