Messi reaches 600 goals, lifts Barcelona

Facing its toughest opponent of the season, Barcelona once again turned to Lionel Messi to take it one step from reaching its first Champions League final in four seasons.

Messi scored his 599th and 600th goals for Barcelona to subdue a Liverpool side that had outplayed the hosts for long stretches at Camp Nou but finally succumbed to the Argentine’s mastery.

His double and Luis Suarez’s early goal against his former club gave Barcelona a commanding 3-0 win in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals on Wednesday.

Messi has won the Champions League four times but his hunger to restore Barcelona as the best team on the continent was evident against Liverpool, when he had to almost singlehandedly quash a ferocious comeback attempt by the English visitors after Suarez’s 26th-minute opener.

Messi doubled the lead from a rebound with 15 minutes left and followed that up by curling in a perfectly struck free kick in the 82nd.

Messi’s double also took his overall tally for the season to 48 goals and his Champions League-leading tally to 12 this campaign.

Elsewhere: In Italy, Brescia has been promoted back into Serie A after eight seasons in the second division after a 1-0 win against Ascoli secured a top-two finish with two rounds remaining in Serie B.… Radamel Falcao rescued struggling Monaco with two second-half goals in a 2-2 draw in the French league. It could prove a vital point as Monaco moved up to 16th place and four points outside the relegation zone with four games left. … Veteran goalkeeper Iker Casillas has had a heart attack but is out of danger, the Portuguese club Porto said.

ETC.

Tennis: Three-time champion Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the upcoming Italian Open as she continues to recover from a right shoulder injury. … Two-time defending champion Alexander Zverev stretched his winning streak at the Munich Open to nine matches with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero .… Third-seeded Qiang Wang reached the quarterfinals of the Prague Open by defeating Mandy Minella 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Olympics: The sports world’s highest court ruled that Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya and other female runners like her with unusually high testosterone must take medication to reduce their levels of the male sex hormone if they want to compete in certain events — a landmark decision with far-reaching ramifications for other women’s sports.