- Last 8 qualifiers ready for draws
Arguments over the World’s best football player between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi stretched further on Wednesday night as all quarter-finalists emerged in this year’s UEFA Champions League competition.
Just 24 hours after the Ronaldo’s brilliant hat-trick against Atletico Madrid halted Juventus’ ouster from the Europe’s elite soccer tournament, the Argentine National team captain was on stage with another scintillating show at Camp Nou as Barcelona routed French side, Olympique Lyonnais 5-1 in their second leg last 16-round match-up.
Remarkably, it is the English Premiership teams that have kept tongues wagging with their impressive performances in the pack of last eight qualifiers. Their four entrants, Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester United, Liverpool FC and Manchester City are still on course for this year’s title.
Completing the list are Portugal’s FC Porto, Netherlands’ Ajax Amsterdam, Italy’s Juventus and La Liga leaders, FC Barcelona, which against all expectations is the only Spanish side that made it to the quarter-finals, a round they have constantly dominated in the last four years.
Though now playing in different countries, the healthy rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo still rumbles on and on.
Having watched the former Real Madrid striker hit a hat-trick that sent Juventus into the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday night, the Barcelona captain put on a spectacular show of at Nou Camp on Wednesday night.
The Argentine was sensational, striking twice on target while setting up two more goals as the Catalans thrashed Lyon to earn their place in Friday’s draw.
After a goalless last 16 first leg in France, left this clash evenly poised at Camp Nou, a special Messi and a special Barca display helped the Catalans ease past determined, clever opponents.
The first half in particular will go down as perhaps Barcelona’s best team performance of the season, even if it was in the second that Messi rose head and shoulders above the rest.
The last two times Barcelona played with this much intensity and connection between each line of their team were the Copa del Rey final in 2018, a 5-0 win over Sevilla, and earlier this season in the Champions League, in the first half of a 4-2 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
What links those games? Aside being high-pressure matches in Cup competitions, Philippe Coutinho also played well and scored in both. The Brazilian was on target again in his finest performance of the season.
It has been a miserable campaign for the €160 million forward, who has been drowning at Camp Nou. Handed yet another chance thanks to Ousmane Dembele’s hamstring tweak, Coutinho took it with both hands.
This was a ‘plugged-in’ performance, showing speed of thought and invention which he has badly lacked this season.
Why did this kind of display come up now? It’s hard to say for certain but the drive Messi offered the team as captain propelled everyone forward.
The Argentine star is not accustomed to chasing back and making tackles back in his own half but he twice came back deep to rob Lyon of the ball and initiate attacks.
It was Messi at the start of the season, who gave a speech to the fans about being determined to win the Champions League, having seen Madrid lift the trophy three years running.
Despite having the best player in the world, and of all time, in their ranks, Barcelona have lifted the European Cup just once in the last seven years. On a one-man mission to change that narrative, Messi broke the deadlock with a perfectly executed penalty.
Luis Suarez was a leader too, in many ways. As well as setting a fantastic example in work-rate and performance level, he was supportive, applauding Coutinho for trying to press the defence, even though it’s not the Brazilian’s favourite pastime.
Suarez teed up Coutinho for the second, with a wonderful piece of control on the edge of the box and a dart forward, before squaring for his team-mate.
The first moment the Catalans let their concentration levels slip, Lyon capitalised, with Lucas Tousart smashing home after a scramble in the box. This temporarily sucked the air out of Barcelona, and as memories of their painful elimination against Roma quickly surfacing, Messi put a lid on them.
The Argentine secured progress in a quick-fire burst of pure creativity. One mazy dribble left, then right, bamboozled the defence and he squeezed home the third.
Then he set up Gerard Pique and Dembele for two more goals as Barca racked up a big scoreline which speaks volumes for their intentions this season.
For this year, while Messi is definitely showing his resolve to write Barcelona’s name on the trophy, Ronaldo has made no pretence about his mission in Turin, Italy with a desire to end the Old Ladies’ miseries in Europe’s top flight football Championship. – Goal.com
