Barca dumbfound toothless Arsenal with Messi's heroics
LONDON --
Arsenal, perhaps, had begun to believe. For 71 minutes, Arsene Wenger’s side battled hard, defended with great discipline and determination and then, just as a very useful goalless draw began to seem a possibility, just as the optimists at the Emirates perhaps began to think Arsenal may nick one on the break, Barca struck. Soon it was 2-0, and Arsenal's task is as good as impossible.
What will infuriate Arsenal, given how long its spent camped inside its own half, diligently tracking runners and closing space, was that the opener came on the break. Gerard Pique beat Olivier Giroud to a right-wing cross. Andres Iniesta helped it on to Neymar. He played a one-two with Luis Suarez and then squared for Lionel Messi to floor Petr Cech with his first touch and then loft the ball over him -- the first goal he had ever scored past the Czech goalkeeper.
The second came 12 minutes later as he converted a penalty. Even with Pique suspended for the second leg, at 2-0 the tie is as good as over. This looks like being a sixth-straight year in which Arsenal has gone out in the last 16. Barcelona, meanwhile, unbeaten in 33 games in all competitions, should move on to the quarterfinal as it looks to become the first team to retain the UEFA Champions League.
"When they scored first, and then especially (getting) the second, it's tough for us but we had to score at one point here," Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker told BT Sport Europe after the loss. "That is why we do not deserve anything. Obviously you will never manage to keep them quite for 90 minutes, that's for sure, but we managed to work well in the first half with good chances.
"But we need to score and then drop back. Instead we took more risks and then they scored. It's going to be much more difficult now but we never give up. We didn't deserve anything because we had enough chances to score at least one."
This was a characteristic Arsenal performance at this stage. There was much to admire, much to give it hope, but ultimately it fell short. More than anything the game highlighted the change in Arsenal over the past couple of years. The emergence of Francis Coquelin has given Arsenal the capacity to sit deeper than it once did. Although it pressed at times, there were long periods when it sat deep with a low block and, with relative success, frustrated Barcelona.
It did concede a few corners and free kicks around the box, but prevented Barca any clear-cut chances until the final minute of the first half when Neymar and Messi combined to set up Suarez, whose shot lacked real venom and was saved by Cech. Once one chance had been created, another soon followed, Sergio Busquets lofting a ball over the top for Dani Alves to surge onto and cross. He picked put an unmarked Suarez six yards out but, unthinkably, he headed wide.
And Arsenal had its chances. Midway through the first half, a Mesut Ozil cut-back found Hector Bellerin on the edge of the box. His shot was blocked but fell for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The ball was slightly behind him which perhaps offer some excuse, but with most of the goal to aim at, he scuffed his shot badly into the prone body of Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
It was not Oxlade-Chamberlain’s best half. He was, perhaps, a slightly surprising selection on the right, selected ahead of Theo Walcott presumably for his greater defensive discipline. In the support he offered Bellerin, that decision could probably be deemed a success but there is a clumsiness at times to Oxlade-Chamberlain and that cost Arsenal on a couple of breakaways. He was withdrawn five minutes into the second half for Walcott.
Walcott turned the game when he came off the bench against Barcelona in 2010, transforming a 2-0 deficit into a 2-2 draw. The second half here, though, was a tale of increasing Barcelona pressure. Three minutes in, Andres Iniesta laid in Neymar but he was denied by Cech’s right leg.
There was a feeling, though, that as the breakthrough failed to arrive of Barca becoming more and more frustrated. There is, at times, a sense of entitlement about Barca, and that was apparent as Jordi Alba threw himself down after taking a light and accidental brush across the face from Giroud. As Giroud remonstrated with him, Alba made a slight thrust of the head into the striker’s face, for which he was perhaps fortunate not to receive a card.
Only a very good save from ter Stegen diving to his right kept out an Giroud header as he met Monreal’s cross with a firm downward header but just as it seemed Arsenal had scented vulnerability, Messi scored. If that left Arsenal in an impossible position, it soon got worse. Suarez hit a post from close range, but the second was coming and it arrived after a bad touch from Per Mertesacker and a wild lunge on Messi by the substitute Mathieu Flamini conceded an entirely avoidable penalty.
Only a fine save from Cech denied Neymar a third in injury-time. Arsenal will think of opportunities missed, and will curse the two goals it did concede, but the fact is that without being at its best, Barca had the chances to have won by twice as many.
"The tie isn't over," Messi told TV3 after the win. "We know what sort of things Arsenal are capable of and nothing is decided despite the fact we achieved a great result with two goals as visitors."
Information from FOXSoccer.com's newswire services contributed to this report.
