Messi stars as Barcelona beat Chelsea
Lionel Messi scored his 99th and 100th goals in the Champions League to send Barcelona through to the quarterfinals for the 11th straight season with a 3-0 win over Chelsea yesterday.
Barcelona advanced 4-1 on aggregate following a 1-1 first-leg draw in London.
Messi beat Thibaut Courtois with two strikes between the Chelsea goalkeeper’s legs from very tight angles on the side of the box. He struck the opener three minutes into the match and scored Barcelona’s third goal in the 63rd.
But the most dazzling moment from the Argentina forward came when he helped Ousmane Dembele score his first goal for Barcelona after he stole the ball from former Barcelona team-mate Cesc Fabregas and darted past two would-be tacklers in the 20th.
Barcelona remained unbeaten Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher will be off air for the rest of the season as a television football analyst after being filmed spitting in the direction of a 14-year-old girl through his car window.
‘‘Before the start of the next season we will sit down with Jamie to discuss whether he is ready to return to his role,’’ Sky Sports said in a statement.
in 25 straight Champions League matches at Camp Nou.
In other games, Bayern Munich won 3-1 at Besiktas to advance 8-1 on aggregate. Thiago Alcantara and Sandro Wagner scored for Bayern and Gokhan Gonul added an own goal.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde chose to start Dembele
Carragher, 40, was suspended on Monday and that was extended on Wednesday until the season ends in May. The new Premier League campaign opens in August.
Carragher has apologised for the spitting incident, which happened after working on Sky’s broadcast of Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.
over midfielder Paulinho, who played the match in London which Chelsea largely dictated. The decision proved the right one when Messi linked up with the young winger to double the lead.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte looked to repeat the team’s relative success at frustrating Barcelona’s attack from the first leg with their
back line of five defenders.
But Messi needed very little to poke a hole in Chelsea’s wall. Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer started an attack with a pass meant for Dembele that was twice deflected before Luis Suarez deftly flicked it back to Messi who targeted the only gap available: between the legs of Courtois.
After providing the second for Dembele, Messi made sure of the victory when he received a pass from Suarez and sped around a group of three defenders before humbling Courtois with a second strike between the legs.