A round-up of the final action of the Champions League Round of 16 sees Barcelona and Bayern Munich saunter into the quarter-finals with victories over Chelsea and Besiktas.
Barcelona 3 v 0 Chelsea
Chelsea arrived at the Nou Camp, a beaten team. Faces raw with a future failing revealed as much after allowing the little magician Lionel Messi to score his 98th Champions League goal in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in the first leg. The wand came out once more during the second leg – goals 99 & 100 sending Chelsea to the rail.
The Premier League is the most exciting league in the world. But does it contain the most competent teams? Barcelona’s 3-0 win means they join Sevilla and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. Chelsea joins Man Utd and Spurs on the sidelines.
As the players emerged into the cacophony of the Camp Nou, I watched the Chelsea players as I did my 17-month-old daughter the first time she stared into a strobe light at a disco. I didn’t think Chelsea would convulse so early.
Lionel Messi is a member of the X-Men. His superpower is to appear in one place in one moment, and then show up somewhere else a second later. In the 3rd minute, he broke into the box, the ball ricocheted into the path of Luis Suarez, a clever flick found Messi again, and the King (as Barcelona fans call him) shot through Thibaut Courtois’ legs at the near post.
17-minutes later and he was at it again.
Messi picked up a rebound on the halfway line, surged into the box like a whippet, and squared to Ousmane Dembele to smash his first goal for the club into the top corner of the net.
It wasn’t all Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona.
Chelsea had chances, most notably a Marcos Alonso free kick that struck the woodwork, and a coin toss of a penalty claim after Gerard Pique upended his Spanish teammate in his 100th appearance in the Champions League.
But this was Messi’s night.
In the 63rd minute, Messi picked up the ball on the edge of the box, drove deep into the heart of the defence before slamming another shot through the legs of the whore like Courtois for his 100th Champions League goal in a convincing 3-0 win.
The result sees more question marks shooting out of this morning’s headlines on Antonio Conte’s future. With the Premier League trophy sitting in a box labelled ‘The Etihad,’ Chelsea face Leicester on the weekend knowing the FA Cup remains their last chance of silverware this season.
In contrast, Barcelona is in the final of the Copa del Rey and are eight points clear at the top of La Liga in Ernesto Valverde’s first season in charge.
Besiktas 1 v 3 Bayern Munich
The German machine, Bayern Munich, join Barcelona in the quarter-finals after an 8-1 drubbing against Besiktas over two legs. The Bayern players arrived in Turkey with the tie in the bag after a 5-0 home win in the first leg. Goals from Thiago Alcántra, Sandro Wagner an own goal from Gönül, and a consolation from Wagner Love rounding off a 3-1 win for the Germans on the night.
Results in Full
Barcelona 3 v 0 Chelsea (Agg 4 – 1)
Beskitas 1 v 3 Bayern Munich (Agg 1 – 8)
Here are the quarter-finalists:
Barcelona
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Man City
Liverpool
Real Madrid
Roma
Sevilla
The draw takes place in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday at 11 am (GMT)
Champions League Odds
Man City 3/1
Barcelona 7/2
Real Madrid 4/1
Bayern Munich – 9/2
Juventus 9/1
Liverpool 9/1
Sevilla 50/1
Roma 50/1
