Messi masterclass as Barca progress

Published on Wednesday 17 March 2010 23:35

LIONEL Messi staged another masterclass to power holders Barcelona into the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the expense of Stuttgart last night.

Messi struck a brilliant opener after just 12 minutes to put Barca on track, and then played a key role as Pedro Rodriguez made it 2-0 soon after as the Catalan giants built a 3-1 aggregate lead.

Messi, who was a constant menace, added a third on the hour mark to take his tally to eight goals in the last four games before Bojan Krkic completed the romp late on as Barca became Spain's only representative to make it into the last eight.

Real Madrid, whose Bernabeu stadium will stage this year's final, and Sevilla were both dumped out in the last week while Atletico Madrid bade farewell to the competition in the group stages.

Barca coach Pep Guardiola opted to start Thierry Henry as centre-forward instead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Frenchman was the home side's biggest threat early on, bringing a save out of Jens Lehmann in the second minute and then shooting wide not long after.

It was Messi who took centre stage after that, though. Fresh from his stunning treble in Sunday's 3-0 win over Valencia – his second hat-trick in 2010 already – the Argentinian broke the deadlock with a superb finish.

Yaya Toure fed the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year near the halfway line and the diminutive playmaker was allowed to venture unchallenged to the edge of the Stuttgart area before unleashing an unstoppable shot that flew into the top corner.

Messi then turned provider ten minutes later as Barca doubled their advantage.

His brilliant pass inside the Stuttgart right-back was latched onto by Toure, and his first-time pass inside was slotted home by Pedro.

Those two early strikes put Barca in total control and Messi's fourth Champions League goal of the season took his tally to 29 in all competitions before Bojan completed the scoring.