A Show Of No Messi
Barcelona progressed into the last 8 of the UEFA Champions League with a 4-1 aggregate win over Chelsea, after defeating the Blues by three unreplied goals at the Camp Nou with Lionel Messi putting in another sterling performance, scoring two wonderful goals against a team he had found goals hard against in the past.
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A goal as early as the 3rd minute of the game proved to be the turning point of the match. Messi slotted between the legs of Thibaut Courtois who should have done better to keep out the ball. The goal was however a blessing in disguise for Chelsea as it spurred them to come out and play in what was their next best game after the outing against Atletico Madrid earlier in the season.
Antonio Conte finally decided to keep faith with his strikers as he started with Olivier Giroud up front who repaid the faith by linking up well with his fellow attackers, allowing Eden Hazard and Willian to operate from the wings. Although the Belgian had a quiet game, Willian caused a lot of problems for the Barcelona defence, only finding it difficult in the final third. Samuel Umtiti looked like he had done his assignment on the Brazilian as he marshalled him round the pitch. This however didn’t stop the wizardry Brazilian to display his skills.
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Ousmane Dembele doubled Barcelona’s advantage on the 20th minute for his first goal in a Barcelona shirt before Lionel Messi got his brace and Barcelona’s third on the 63rd minute in a marauding counter attacking play, slotting again between the legs of Belgian first choice Goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois.
It was a more improved performance by Chelsea as against previous seasons and the Blues would be leaving Spain with their head held up high, even though they’d be saying goodbye to the competition this season.
Barcelona join Bayern Munich, who earlier today defeated Besiktas by 3 goals to 1 in Turkey and 8-1 on aggregate for the Quarterfinal draws to be held on Friday with other qualified teams.
QUATERFINALISTS
Barcelona
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Liverpool
Manchester City
Real Madrid
Roma
Sevilla
Nice article, I upvoted it, check out my first blog post about Mourinho's rant yesterday.
https://steemit.com/football/@georgeforeham/jose-mourinho-rant-flawed-heritage-or-poisonous-environment
You got a 1.86% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @reservedsingle!
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We are all so blessed to life in the era of the best footballer of all time. Everything he does is a pleasure for the eye. He makes football look so easy.
You can say that again 👏... Even though I'm a Ronaldo fan 😝
Messi is simply the best