Lionel Messi scored twice as European champions, Barcelona, recorded a 2-0 victory in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash away to Arsenal on Tuesday.
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Flamini was introduced as Coquelin’s engine began to run on empty but the midfielder’s immediate impact was to trip Messi after a poor pass from Mertesacker allowed the Argentinian to take control in the area – he duly dusted himself off and sent Cech the wrong way from the spot.
“I liked everything about us today from the very beginning”, Luis Enrique said.
“Arsenal are capable of everything”.
The Gunners’ misery was compounded by scans revealing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sustained knee ligament damage against the Catalans and could now miss much of the run-in, but that is only expected to strengthen Wenger’s belief that he now needs to protect his key players for the remaining 12 games of the Premier League season. On the other hand, Barca has two crucial away goals going onto the 2nd leg at home on 17th march. “We have a great chance to focus back on the Premier League and forget what happened in the last 20 minutes [against Barcelona]”, said Mertesacker, whose Arsenal are two points adrift of league-leading Leicester City after 26 rounds.
Despite all its share of the ball, Barcelona’s first real chance came midway through the half with a free kick on the edge of the area that Messi ploughed into the Arsenal wall.
“We knew they could not keep that up in the second half, as it’s very hard”.
However, we reckon one fan may have gone a little too far and we were shocked to find out it is former Team GB heptathlete Kelly Sotherton!
Barca coach Luis Enrique joked this week that all he needed to do was shout “Abracadabra” for Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez to deliver the kind of magic display that would bewilder the Gunners.
“I think we have a great chance on Sunday to do that again and to show we are still in a strong position and still competing for the title”.
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As you can imagine, most Arsenal fans were pretty ticked off, especially after watching Francis Coquelin having a very impressive game. “But thankfully I was able to do it”.
