Liverpool match Barca but beaten by magic
Klopp can only marvel as Messi hits 600 goals with brace and leaves Reds gasping
Facing their toughest opponent of the season, Barcelona again turned to Lionel Messi to take them one step from reaching their first Champions League football 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 the Nou Camp but finally succumbed to the Argentine’s mastery.
The Argentine’s 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 yesterday.
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.
Mohamed Salah still almost grabbed a valuable away goal for Liverpool to take back to next week’s return leg at Anfield when he hit the post late.
“It is not over because we are going to a ground that is very difficult, with lots of history, that presses rivals, but we are happy with today’s game,” Messi said. “This is the critical moment, the best moment and we have to be more united than ever. At the start of the year we said we would do this together.”
Messi’s double also took his overall tally for the season to 48 goals and his Champions League-leading tally to 12 this campaign.
It was a bitter loss for Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool, who are trying to reach consecutive European finals after losing last year’s to Real Madrid.
Even though striker Roberto Firmino was fit enough for only the final 12 minutes, Liverpool dominated long stretches of the match but failed to finish their chances when they had the hosts on the back foot.
“I think that it was the best we have played in the Champions League, including last year,” manager Klopp said. “We had good chances and caused
them real trouble. The problem is that we didn’t score a goal.”
On Tuesday, Ajax won 1-0 at Tottenham to give the Dutch side the lead in the other semifinal.
Barcelona have already clinched the Spanish league title, leaving them free to fully focus on the second leg while they aim for a rare treble of titles. They play Valencia in the Copa del Rey final on May 25.
Liverpool don’t have that same luxury, being in the thick of a fierce race with Manchester City for the Premier League. They trail City by one point and visit Newcastle on Sunday.
The speed of Salah and Sadio Mane caused Barcelona problems throughout and a flurry of jitters in their backline.
But Messi was a force at the other end, making Liverpool bend and almost break on his solo runs through the heart of the defence until they gave way in the final minutes.
“I knew [Messi] was a world-class player, and I saw it again. I am not too surprised. He was unstoppable,” Klopp said. “We couldn’t defend the free kick. What a strike.”
Liverpool came out of the halftime break pressing for the equaliser and succeeded in the rarest of football feats: taking the ball away from Barcelona. James Milner and Salah drew the first quality saves from Marc-Andre ter Stegen just after the restart.
That was when Messi settled the match — and possibly the tie.
His first goal came with a bit of luck after Suarez kneed a volley against the bar and the ball fell straight to Messi, who chested it down and tapped it into an empty net.
The second was spectacular. After being fouled by Fabinho well outside the area, he struck a swerving, leftfoot strike past a diving Alisson and into the corner of the net. Goal
No 600 for Messi, making it one big hill to climb for
Liverpool.