Champions League: Messi, Barcelona make a mockery of the doubters

Spanish giants deliver masterclass to eliminate Milan with 4-0 rout.

BARCELONA: Lionel Messi’s Barcelona gave an emphatic response to the doubters when they made Champions League history by overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit to oust seven-times European Cup winners AC Milan on Tuesday night.

Messi’s superb double set Barca on their way in the first half at a raucous but desperately tense Nou Camp and David Villa and Jordi Alba struck after the break to send the La Liga side through to the quarter-finals 4-2 on aggregate.

They became the first team in Europe’s elite club competition to ever overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit without the benefit of an away goal and are one of only five sides to fight back from more than one goal down.

“It’s a tremendous joy,” Villa told reporters. “We should enjoy this and right now I don’t care about our opponents in the quarter-finals.

“When you have days like this you forget all about the bad ones. I prefer to think about today. It is something we deserved and now we have to think about the future.”

There was talk of the end of an era after a poor run of form saw Barca eliminated from the King’s Cup and beaten in La Liga by arch rivals Real Madrid following the reverse to Milan at the San Siro last month. But the Catalan giants proved doubters wrong with a special performance to eliminate Milan.

Milan coach Allegri rues missed chances

It was hard not to feel sorry for AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and his players after they were on the wrong end of a Barcelona backlash.

“For a matter of a few centimetres, maybe if Niang had scored, we would be here talking about a different game,” Allegri told a news conference. “After we went 3-0 down we still tried to pressure them and we managed to create chances.

“But when you are playing Barcelona and you have around five or seven opportunities to score you have to take them.

“Milan tonight played a worse match than the first leg and in the first half an hour they did not let us play.”

Galatasaray oust Schalke
in pulsating clash

In the other match of the night, Galatasaray, spearheaded by Didier Drogba, struck twice before halftime and survived a second-half barrage to oust Schalke, denying Germany a full house in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Galvanised by a superb swerving strike by Hamit Altintop against his old club, the Turkish side dominated the first half, held on for grim life in the second and snatched the last 16 second leg 3-2 with a stoppage time goal on the break against bewildered opponents.

Their 4-3 aggregate win justified their decision to splash out on big-name signings Wesley Sneijder and Drogba in January while Schalke became the first German side to exit the Champions League proper this term.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2013.