COURTOIS ALLOWS IT TO SLIP THROUGH HIS LEGS
Magic Messi finds the gap... twice!
This stuff doesn’t happen by accident, you know. The first time Lionel Messi stuck the ball through Thibaut Courtois’s legs from a seemingly impossible angle it was possible to fool yourself that, well, he might have got a little fortunate there.
The second time, there could be no doubt. Messi shoots from places that no other footballer would, he is capable of targeting areas of the goal, or of a person, with a precision that is quite breathtaking.
it is remarkable that Barcelona ever lose a game with a player of his talent on tap, remarkable that he doesn’t just score several this way each time he plays, considering he seems able to pass through the thigh gap at will.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, his Champions League ambitions laid to waste, walked off having given Messi an affectionate cuddle. That might not have gone down well with those who demand pure tribalism but, as a football man, we understand. sometimes you just have to say well done.
Alan shearer thinks we are witnesses to the greatest footballer there has ever been — on nights like this he makes a very appealing case.
Chelsea weren’t bad here, whatever the scoreline might suggest. They were better than Manchester United against sevilla on Tuesday and certainly not embarrassed.
They just made mistakes. And every time they did, Barcelona scored. Every time, without fail, across two legs.
Andreas Christensen, Courtois, Cesc Fabregas, Cesar Azpilicueta — every Barcelona goal had a different abetter from Chelsea’s ranks. The experienced ones, last night, too. Veterans of World Cup finals and huge European games. They each committed the cardinal sin. if you can’t give a sucker an even break, you certainly can’t give three to a team like Barcelona. They are brutal in making it count, clinical in the finish in a way Chelsea were not.
And in Messi they have a player who scores goals from angles the Greek giants of trigonometry didn’t know had been contemplated. There is no sliver of the penalty area from which the goal can be made safe. That is the only mitigation in Courtois’s defence.
What was said before this tie? That Chelsea are Messi’s bogey team and he doesn’t score against them. seems to have put that one to bed, don’t you think?
Barcelona scored four over the two legs, Messi got three and made the other. There wouldn’t have been that much between the teams otherwise. it is even possible to imagine that if Chelsea had Messi, they might have won.
As it was, they hit a post, the bar, and had a decent penalty shout rejected last night. had those three gone in, they would have progressed.
That such an outcome always seemed a forlorn hope is due largely to the timing of Barcelona’s goals. They were one up after two minutes and eight seconds, two ahead on 20 minutes and three clear just after the hour, by which time all hope was lost.
There were moments, even 2-0 down, when it was possible to see Chelsea pulling one back and giving the locals a scare, considering 2-2 would have sent them through on away goals.
Yet each time there was a smidgeon of optimism in the air, so Chelsea stumbled, Barcelona capitalised and extended their lead.
had Chelsea got back into the game, one imagines Messi might have just taken it away from them again, because he was in that kind of mood.
That Barcelona scored from the first attack of the match was a huge slap in the face.
Conte will have sent his players out with the instruction to keep it tight, to make Barcelona play through their ranks, to frustrate them and hit on the counter. Bang went that plan, less than three minutes in.
Messi tried to play a one-two with Ousmane Dembele which Marcos Alonso cut out. Unfortunately, his interception only sent the ball into the path of Luis suarez who reacted with typically wonderful improvisational skills, thinking fast to divert it to Messi with an instinctive backheel.
it was brilliant, street-inspired football but it would have come to nothing had Courtois done his job and Messi been less than a genius.
he was at a horribly tight angle on the right, one that only he turns into goals. his shot travelled through Courtois’s legs and into the net. he shouldn’t have been beaten like that, he shouldn’t have been beaten from there, he was slow down and awkward. Yet, in his defence, this was Messi.
Real Madrid have to find a way of stopping Messi, though, and if they were watching, the display would have done Courtois few favours. David de Gea looks so much the better option right now. Maybe he is thinking that about Madrid, too.
To their credit, Chelsea responded well and immediately. Willian went close twice, yet mistake number two changed the complexion of Chelsea’s task. Fabregas gave the ball away in midfield to the player who should never be handed presents.
Messi’s break was stunning. he rode two Chelsea tackles and then somehow spotted Dembele in a wide position on the opposite side of the field, yet slightly behind him. it’s like he has wing mirrors.
Dembele took a touch and lashed the ball across Courtois into the far corner. he got a hand to it, but to no effect. it is to
Chelsea’s credit that they remained competitive for so long in the circumstances.
Had a third goal gone in from Suarez after 28 minutes, it could have got away from them, but Chelsea stayed bold.
Alonso hit the outside of the right post with a free-kick from 25 yards, then hit the turf under pressure from Gerard Pique in the second half. A penalty? There was certainly a tug on his arm, but Alonso fell cheaply y when he was in a good position n to score.
By the time Antonio Rudiger r hit the bar late on, the game e was long over.
Barcelona’s third of the night was an error by Azpilicueta, who gave the ball to Suarez, , who found Messi and — well, , let’s just say the usual al happened.
Approaching the goal at an angle from which the world and his wife would have passed, Messi shot.
He did so with such ferocity and accuracy, with such acceleration of body and mind, that Courtois looked to have turned his back on it. He hadn’t. He was just glancing behind to see where it had gone, as it appeared to have passed through him.
Maybe it did. Maybe Messi is magic.
It would make as much sense as any of those other things he does with the ball.