Lionel Messi was at his very best on Tuesday night when Barcelona made the trip to London to face Premier League side Arsenal and walked away with a convincing 2-0 win.
Advertisement
But their spirit seemed to fizzle out in the second half – more so after Messi’s opener in the 71st minute, which had an incredible build-up involving Luis Suarez and Neymar.
However, eventually their quality shone through as Lionel Messi grabbed himself a brace to give the Spanish giants a huge advantage heading into the second leg. An Arsenal attack broke down in the visitors’ penalty box and Barcelona counter-attacked down the left flank. I’m delighted with the way we played throughout the game, ‘ Messi told TV3. I feel we are extremely guilty and we have no excuse for that goal.
“We were not cautious enough of their counter-attack, which is a model counter-attack, and then they finished it well”.
“The regret I have is once we looked like we dominate the game in the last 20 minutes we give the goal away”.
“That makes it realistically very, very hard – if not impossible [to go through]”.
A clearly frustrated Arsene Wenger accused his Arsenal side of naivety in their 2-0 Champions League loss at home to Barcelona.
“It was similar to Monaco”. We have never done that this season, particularly when we have lost a game we have tried to bounce back quickly and 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.
“This is the year Arsenal should go on and win it. If they don’t then questions will be asked”. We were disciplined defensively but we knew that if we had to keep a 0-0 we keep a 0-0. Arsenal are very good at helping each other collectively and we needed a lot of possession of the ball.
“They are better than us, no shame in that, they are world champions, European champions”.
There had been let-offs, notably when Luis Suarez missed a sitter before halftime, but Arsenal were starting to look as if they could sneak a priceless lead when the wheels came off.
“We had the first chance in the first half and we created some opportunities where we weren’t able to find the final pass”.
Advertisement
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – who went off with a knock early in the second half – had a glorious chance after 21 minutes when Hector Bellerin’s deflected shot fell into the midfielder’s path eight yards from goal, but he could only shoot straight at Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
