Messi bags a brace in Barca stroll
SPARTAK MOSCOW BARCELONA 3 0
LIONEL Messi moved to within five goals of Gerd Muller's scoring record as Barcelona qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League with victory over Spartak Moscow.
The Argentinian scored twice to go to 80 goals so far in 2012, just five behind Muller's record number of goals scored in a calendar year from 1972.
Dani Alves gave Barcelona the lead before Messi's double strike, with all the goals coming before half-time.
“We were well aware of the importance of this game having lost to Celtic last time out,” said Barca coach Tito Vilanova.
“We did not want to be looking to qualify in our last home game against Benfica.
“My players demonstrated just how great they are tonight. They have won a lot of trophies down the years and proved that they can adapt to any circumstance, be it the cold weather or a tricky playing surface. They put in a very diligent performance. for his instant shot to be superbly parried by goalkeeper Andrei Dykan, who showed his quick reactions in the centre of the goal.
Barcelona went ahead in the 16th minute through Dani Alves when he struck a volley cleanly past the goalkeeper after the ball was laid off by Messi at the edge of the area.
The visitors then wasted a great chance to equalise when Emmanuel Emenike's cross from the right found Marek Suchy, but he ballooned the ball over from less than 12 yards.
They were left to rue that when shortly after Barca took a twogoal lead.
Andres Iniesta's shot from a narrow angle brought a parry from the goalkeeper, but Messi pounced on the rebound and although he half snatched at the shot the ball bounced into the bottom right-hand corner.
Messi scored his second of the night and Barca's third six minutes before the break when he timed his run perfectly and latched on to Pedro's superbly weighted pass, got ahead of the defence and rounded the goalkeeper before slotting the ball home.
Emenike shot over at the start of the second half, but Barca were in control, weaving the ball around.
Spartak failed to pull one back when Yevgeni Makeev completely miscontrolled the ball when well-positioned and the game was clearly beyond the hosts who had failed to take any of their chances.