FC Barcelona simply blew off Leverkusen at a brilliant night at the Camp Nou. The 7-1 victory has to be a stern message to all our challengers in Europe this season. With a 3-1 away lead we were almost there in the quarter final. But following last night's Arsenal's comeback against Milan, there were some nerves. But the team simply blasted those. In the end we won 10-2 on aggregate. It was a record breaking night. Lionel Messi who was rested in the weekend cam roaring scoring five in the night. Tello who made his debut scored twice to complete the 7-1 scoreline. This is Barca's biggest victory in UEFA Champions League. Messi became the first player to score five goals in a single Champions League match. He right now has 12 goals from 7 matches in this Champions League, equalling his last season tally. Puyol and Abidal were ruled out for the match. So we had Adriano, Mascherano, Pique and Alves in defense. Busquets, Iniesta and Xavi made the midfield. The front trio were Pedro, Messi and Fabregas. Leverkusen was coming into teh match on the back of a splendid victory against Bayern Munich. So it promised to be an interesting battle.
We were trying to settle into our rhythm from the word go, but there was a bit of complacency from the defense at the start. In the 3rd minute Alves gave away the ball near the box and that created a bit of panic around the box. In the 6th minute had our first shot from Xavi which was deflected for a corner. In the 10th minute after a slow start we woke up brilliantly forcing a double save. fabregas lofted the ball to Messi in the box, whose shot was saved the rebound fell to Pedro, but the defender was able to block the shot from Pedro. In the 24th minute Pique almost scored when he flicked the free kick from Xavi but the keeper made a brilliant one hand save. In the 25th minute Lionel Messi finally broke the deadlock from a brilliant counter attack. Xavi sent in a brilliant loop ball spotting Messi's run from his own half, Messi take the ball in control and simply scooped the ball over the advancing keeper's head. That goal did kill the tie completely. In the 42ndminute Messi killed it off absolutely scoring his second of night. Iniesta passed the ball to Messi on the edge of box, the little Argentinian skipped past two defenders before curling the ball to the far corner.
We came out of the break firing in all cyclinders. Within a minute Fabregas had a great chance but decided to pass it to a team mate and defender cleared it. BUt the move which set up that chance was exquisite. In the 50th minute Messi completed his hat-trick. It's again was similar to the first goal. Fabregas this time lofted a ball spotting Messi's run, he once again lofted the ball over the keeper, this time from a much difficult angle. In the 53rd minute Guardiola took off both Iniesta and Xavi to bring on Keita and Tello. Tello immediately rewarded his coach with a goal for himself from a Fabregas pass taking the scoreline to 4-0. In the 58th minute Messi scored his fourth after a huge mistake from the keeper. It was all becoming too easy. Messi tries to play a one two with Pedro, but the defenders had it covered. Then the keeper came out and collected but spilled it in the crucial moment giving the ball to no one else but Messi, who made no mistake. In the 62nd minute we scored again with Tello scoring again. Alves found Tello on the left, he tried to curl it past but struck it too close to keeper who deflected it into the goal. Guardiiola immdiately made the third substitution by bringing on Muniesa for Adriano. In the 85th minute Messi scored his fifth of the night curling the ball from the edge of the box in to the far corner. That was the first time Messi has scored 5 goals in a a match. At 7-0 this was already Barcelona's biggest win in Europe. To make matters worse it was showing every sign of becoming worse for Leverkuse, as a matter of fact the visiting side had given up following the fourt goal. In the 89th minute Tello was denied by the keeper in a one on one situation with a fine save. In the 90th minute Bayern leverkusen scored a consolation goal through a brilliant goal from Bellarabi. That was a brilliant goal may be the best finish of the night.
Playing a high line, Bayern Leverkusen was in for a tough night but even them never thought it would be this bad. It was a sheer humiliation and in a huge scale. Bayern gave it up after Messi hat-trick but they were expecting us to cool down a bit, unfortunately that was not the part of our script. I had a feeling Messi would score five tonight after missing the weekend match against Gijon. But even I didn't give much to that feeling. He was simply outstanding. After both Iniesta and Xavi were taken off, he dropped deep to organise attack. His finishing were all world class, with the scoop with his right foot for the hat-trick being the best of the lot. Messi has been a gift for us Barca fans, a gift sometimes we take for granted. Tello meanwhile made a blockbuster Champions league debut - he almost scored teh hat-trick. He at times look a very one dimensional player, but that is very much a dimension our team is missing nowadays. He stretches the field like anything and is the fastest of all our players. The rest of the cast played their part to perfection. Of the midfielders - Fabregas was brilliant. His over the top deliveries were catching out Leverkusen's high line defense over and over again. Pique for me was the only problem point tonight - being more complacent than the entire team combined. But tonight is not about those things, it is all about the treat these guys presented for us. Something we take for granted at times, but the we are fans - so we demand!
All About FC Barcelona
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