Magic Messi
Conte pays tribute to Barcelona striker after he hits his 100th Champions League goal
They unfurled a giant banner – “God Save the King” – prior to kickoff, with Lionel Messi then making his regal presence felt as Barcelona swept Chelsea out of the Champions League. It was a royal beating.
The tifo is dedicated to Messi, and the warning by Chelsea coach Antonio Conte that his team would “have to suffer” to get through to the quarter-finals proved prophetic – except while they suffered they were knocked out and Messi, inevitably, inflicted the damage with two goals and a brilliant assist.
He has now scored 100 times in 123 games in this competition and he reached his century by nutmegging goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois – for both goals. The first, timed at 128 seconds, also happened to be the fastest one the 30-year-old has scored in his entire career.
The result means that the five English clubs in the last 16 have been reduced to just two, with only Manchester City and Liverpool surviving. Not that Chelsea went out with a whimper like Manchester United. If not for Messi – an extremely big if – they may well have even prevailed, with Willian their most impressive performer.
Messi scored in both legs and now has 20 goals in his past 18 games against English sides – to think he did not score at all in his first eight meetings with Chelsea. For Conte there is just the FA Cup and a fight to finish in the Premier League top four left before his expected departure from Chelsea.
Once more, after his frustrations at Juventus, the Champions League has eluded him and that will hurt and especially because the damage was partly self-inflicted.
At the final whistle Conte went and embraced that magician, Messi. What else could he do? But, as with the fixture at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea contributed to their downfall. At home it was a mistake by Andreas Christensen which led to Messi’s crucial equaliser and, this time, there were errors by Courtois and a collective failing for Barcelona’s second.
Over the two games Chelsea struck the woodwork four times and had a clear penalty appeal refused – when 2-0 down in this match – but are out.
Also, prior to kick-off, the sight of Messi pinging a practice free-kick from 30 yards into the top corner of the net – with goalkeeper MarcAndre ter Stegen rooted to the spot – before trotting over to finish his warm-up, gave a sight of the scale of task ahead for Chelsea.
The nonchalant strike drew admiring gasps from the Barcelona fans and they were soon cheering even louder and for a strike that counted – and counted badly against Chelsea. Messi scored. Barcelona had held the ball, probing from side to side, for just over 90 seconds from kick-off before Antonio Rudiger slid in to concede a throw-in.
That was Chelsea’s first touch. From it Barcelona passed and passed again and, this time, the second Chelsea touch of the game saw the ball cannon off Marcos Alonso and back to Luis Suarez, who quickly found Messi. The angle was tight but he drilled a low cross-shot that went between Courtois’s legs.
There were 41 Barcelona passes before the goal – and not one by Chelsea.
It also meant that Messi, who started the move, has scored in each of the three games he has played following the birth of his three sons. Yes, he delivered.
A tall order for Chelsea had become even taller but, with Olivier Giroud starting at centre-forward, they began to push on and a Willian free-kick was diverted into the side-netting before Ter Stegen held a low shot from the Brazilian.
Yet just as it appeared they had responded well, they were undone by more sorcery from Messi, assisted by Chelsea, with Cesc Fabregas losing the ball as he miscontrolled on halfway. That was enough.
Messi whisked it away, was too quick for Christensen as he dived in and Cesar Azpilicueta as he tried to cover. Messi was too smart for the other Chelsea defenders as he switched the play across the area to the unmarked Ousmane Dembele.
Panic-stricken, four Chelsea players had been drawn to Messi and Dembele drove a powerful rising shot back across Courtois, who again appeared to react late, for his first goal in Barcelona colours since his £100million-plus transfer in an injury-hit season.
Again, though, Chelsea reacted. Ter Stegen beat out Alonso’s firsttime shot and surely they should have scored when they worked N’golo Kante clear but he wastefully stabbed the ball wide before, on half-time, Alonso clipped the outside of the post with a free-kick.
Soon after the restart they felt even more aggrieved when Gerard Pique appeared to bundle over Alonso inside the area. But the penalty was not given and Giroud was booked for his angry protests.
Messi ended it. Suarez gained possession and drove forward, slipping the ball to Messi, who feinted past Azpilicueta, taking out two more Chelsea players, before again firing the ball through Courtois’s legs. It appeared a deliberate ploy – as Courtois sets himself with his legs apart – and soon after Messi tried to beat the goalkeeper direct from a corner.
Messi was messing with Courtois who soon after saved well as he pushed out a close-range header by substitute Paulinho. Right at the end another header, this time by Rudiger, crashed back off the bar from a corner. But Chelsea had been royally beaten.