The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring Barcelona’s third goal – and his 100th in the Champions League – in a 3-0 win over Chelsea at the Nou Camp to seal their place in the quarter-finals.
Argentinian star nets twice to take his tally in the competition to 100 goals
Lionel Messi punished error-prone Chelsea as Barcelona advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 3-0 win at the Nou Camp.
After eight appearances without a goal against Chelsea, Messi settled this tie by scoring the equaliser in last month’s first leg and two goals here, either side of Ousmane Dembele’s first Barca goal, for a 4-1 aggregate success.
Chelsea will feel aggrieved not to have been awarded a penalty for a Gerard Pique foul on Marcos Alonso when 2-0 down.
Alonso also hit the outside of a post with a free-kick and an Antonio Rudiger header hit the bar late on.
But in truth the Blues’ hopes were ended when Messi struck after just 126 seconds, netting through the legs of the hapless Thibaut Courtois as mistakes proved costly.
Messi’s second of the night and 100th Champions League goal was also struck through Courtois’ legs, after he had tackled Cesc Fabregas in teeing-up Dembele’s sumptuous strike.
With Chelsea adrift of the Champions League qualification places in the Premier League, defeat to Leicester in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final and then to Tottenham on April 1 could result in a premature departure for head coach Antonio Conte.
Conte’s best Champions League performance as a boss remains the quarter-finals with Juventus in 2013, while Barca have now reached the last eight for a record-extending 11th year.
They will be joined in tomorrow’s draw for the quarter-finals by Bayern Munich who completed an 8-1 aggregate win over Turkish side Beskitas with a 3-1 win in Istanbul yesterday.
The German champions scored early through Thiago and a Gokhan Gonul own goal seconds after half-time doubled Bayern’s lead.
Wagner Love pulled one back but Sandro Wagner ended the scoring.