UEFA Champions League: Barcelona Complete English Clubs’ Misery
- Humiliate Chelsea 3-0 as Messi scores 100th goal
Lionel Messi’s brace in the 3-0 humiliation of English champions, Chelsea took his Champions League goals tally to 100 as Spaniard giants, FC Barcelona reach the quarter-finals of this year’s competition on 4-1 aggregate.
The victory over Chelsea saw Barcelona adding to the miseries of English teams following the earlier defeats of Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United by Juventus of Italy and Sevilla FC of Spain in the round of 16 matches.
Returning to the Barcelona squad after attending to his third child’s birth in Argentina at the weekend, Messi hit the landmark score beating the Chelsea goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois in 62nd minutes for his second goal of the night at Camp Nou.
The Argentine had, in the third minute, shot the current La Liga leaders into the lead, knocking a perfect left footed shot past Courtois at his near post. Frenchman Ousmane Dembele added to Chelsea’s woes as he doubled the lead 17 minutes later with an assist from Messi.
With the triumph, Barcelona joined Real Madrid, Sevilla, Manchester City, Liverpool, Juventus, Roma and Bayern Munich in the quarter-final draws holding on Friday, March 16, 2018.
The Argentine captain has now become only the second player in UEFA Champions League’s history to reach the 100th goals’ milestone after Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo whose tally stands at 117 goals.
However, Messi’s account is well clear of former Real Madrid great, Raul Gonzalez (71); ex-Manchester United’s goal poacher, Ruud van Nistelrooy (56); and Karim Benzema of Real Madrid (53) who is still in active service for the Galácticos
