Messi helps Barcelona beat Lyon to reach CL quarters

BARCELONA, SPAIN >> Just when the Camp Nou crowd was getting nervous, Lionel Messi turned a close game into a complete rout.

Messi scored two goals before setting up two more for teammates as Barcelona beat Lyon 5-1 on Wednesday to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for a 12th straight season.

After a 0-0 draw in the first leg, Luis Suarez helped Barcelona go 2-0 up by halftime by earning a penalty converted by Messi and then setting up Philippe Coutinho to score.

Lucas Tousart gave the visitors hope with a goal in the 58th minute after Barcelona failed to clear a corner kick. That meant Lyon only needed one more goal to go through, but Messi scored again in the 78th before passing for Gerard Pique and substitute Ousmane Dembele to round off the big win.

“We suffered unnecessarily for a while after they made it 2-1,” said Messi, who matched Xavi Hernandez’s club record of 476 career victories. “We complicated things by letting our guard down on a set piece. After the 3-1 we could calm down.”

Messi’s goals were his seventh and eighth in the Champions League this season and took his tally to 36 in all competitions for Barcelona.

With the win, Barcelona set a Champions League record of 30 consecutive home matches without a loss that dates back to September 2013.

Barcelona also stayed on course for a possible treble of titles. It leads the Spanish league and has reached the final of the Copa del Rey.

LIVERPOOL 3, BAYERN MUNICH 1 >> Sadio Mane scored twice to send Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool into the Champions League quarterfinals with a win at Bayern Munich in the second leg of the last 16.

Mane opened the scoring with a delicate finish in the 26th minute and added Liverpool’s third in the 84th by heading in Mohamed Salah’s cross as Bayern desperately sought a way back into the game.

Serge Gnabry had forced an own goal from Joel Matip to equalize in the 39th, but Liverpool went ahead again through a corner when Virgil Van Dijk met James Milner’s cross with a thumping header in the 69th.

“Scoring three is really difficult. Actually, we scored four because we scored the other one as well. It’s a big step for us,” said Klopp, whose team lost in the final to Real Madrid last year. “We really are back in the landscape of international football.”