MESSI’S KISS OF DEATH
Barca masterclass kills off Tottenham
LIONEL MESSI’S masterclass condemned Tottenham last night to a second straight Champions League defeat and left Mauricio Pochettino with a mountain to climb to reach the knockout stages.
Barcelona dazzled, with Messi, Philippe Coutinho and Luis suarez tormenting spurs. The opening goal came inside two minutes and manager Pochettino said: ‘That changed everything. The emotion becomes tough when you are against Barcelona and players like Messi and suarez.
‘it was a game we needed to win and to concede straight away destroyed the plan.’
Coutinho’s opener was followed up by an outstanding ivan Rakitic strike to give Barca a 2-0 lead by half-time. Harry Kane
pegged Barcelona back, but Messi hit the post twice before scoring the visitors’ third. Erik Lamela reduced the arrears but Messi scored again to seal a 4-2 victory late on. Pochettino added: ‘The first half was difficult for the team to start and feel confident in how we planned to play. ‘When you start off at that level against Barcelona, it makes it so tough. It gave more space to Messi. And then Rakitic scored an unbelievable goal. ‘But I want to congratulate my team, because we were always in the game, always fighting, never giving up. I’m disappointed with the result but the effort was massive. The most important thing was our character.’ Pochettino felt Spurs coped well with Messi’s threat before the break. ‘We didn’t concede one chance to him in the first half,’ he said. ‘In the second half, with a lot of space, it is unbelievable how he runs. ‘Our players were heroes because they were chasing the game against Messi, Suarez, Coutinho. Lucas Moura could have equalised. Then you would have said the manager is the best in the world.’ Spurs now face a must-win double-header against PSV Eindhoven before hosting Inter and travelling to the Nou Camp. Defender Kieran Trippier told BT Sport: ‘Messi was unbelievable. When he’s in that form, he’s magic to watch. We’ll recover and see where we went wrong.’ In the TV studio, Rio Ferdinand paid tribute to Messi’s brilliance. ‘I feel blessed that I was in this stadium live to be able to watch him. I’ll tell my kids about it tomorrow on the school run,’ he said. ‘This guy — what he does on a football pitch is just ridiculous. It’s like he’s got a remote control in his hand and he assesses the situation and says, “Yeah, right, just plotting the location and I’ll put the ball exactly where I want to put it, on a sixpence”. ‘His weight of pass, his decision-making is unrivalled and when he gets in to finish, he is as cool as you like.’