For
70 minutes the plan had worked perfectly.
Barcelona,
unbeaten in 32 consecutive games and with the best attacking trio on the
planet, had been frustrated at every turn.
Arsenal,
so often guilty of gifting its opponents goals at the last 16 stage of the
Champions League in previous years, had defended with all its might.
It
made what must have felt like hundreds of tackles, given everything in its
locker and yet within the blink of an eye all of its hard work was undone by
that Barcelona brilliance which makes football so wonderful to watch.
As
Arsenal were caught up the field, perhaps seduced by the ridiculous notion it
could yet somehow win this tie, Barcelona struck.
A
rapid counter attack which ripped straight through the heart of the Arsenal
defense concluded with Lionel Messi applying the finishing touch.
The
same man then added further gloss from the penalty spot after he had been
upended by Mathieu Flamini's clumsy challenge.
Two
away goals and a 33rd consecutive game without defeat leaves Barcelona
perfectly poised to progress to the quarterfinal stage after this 2-0 first leg
win.
The
margin of victory could have been greater had Luis Suarez not hit the post when
clear on goal, but such failures will not worry Luis Enrique, the manager of
Barcelona.
He
can now surely look forward to the last eight and the opportunity to ensure his
team become the first to retain the Champions League title since the
competition was revamped.
MSN
All
the hype before the contest had surrounded Barcelona's incredible front three
-- Messi, Suarez and Neymar -- or as they've been nicknamed, MSN.
Going
into this game, the three had amassed 91 goals between them this season --
that's 30 more than the entire Arsenal team.
But
the trio were largely contained in the first half and it was Arsenal which
should have moved ahead early in the contest.
A
neat counter attack ripped through the Barcelona defense with Mesut Ozil
finding Hector Bellerin but when the Spaniard's shot was blocked, Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain could only fire the loose ball into the body of Marc-Andre
ter Stegen, the Barcelona goalkeeper.
Barcelona,
despite dominating possession, struggled to find any rhythm as Arsenal stuck to
its task of frustrating its opponent at every opportunity.
It
was not until the final seconds of the half that Barcelona found a way through
the home side's defense but Suarez headed wastefully wide when well placed.
After
a frustrating opening 45 minutes, Barcelona began the second half on the front
foot.
Neymar,
who had been a peripheral figure, was denied by Cech after running onto a
through pass by Andres Iniesta as the game moved from end to end.
Olivier
Giroud, the Arsenal striker, had his header well saved by ter Stegen while
Suarez fired wide at the other end as both teams moved through the gears.
Arsenal,
beaten at this stage last year by Monaco, were beginning to believe that it
could pull off the impossible.
No
team had beaten Barcelona since October when Sevilla edged out Enrique's men in
La Liga.
But
just as the home side started to believe, Barcelona struck -- and did so to
devastating effect.
A
three man move including Neymar and Suarez dissected the Arsenal defense and
Messi was the grateful recipient, firing the ball past Cech from close-range.
Shocked
by its concession, Arsenal nearly fell further behind when Suarez hit the post
after Neymar's effort had been blocked.
Arsenal
was beginning to rock and it came as little surprise when Barcelona doubled its
advantage with seven minutes remaining.
An
awful error by Per Mertesacker inside the penalty area presented Messi with the
opportunity to take possession but the Argentine was sent tumbling to the
ground illegally by Flamini.
Messi,
who had failed to score against Cech in his six previous encounters against the
goalkeeper, kept his nerve to score from the penalty spot.
It
leaves Arsenal with an uphill task to progress -- and few if any will give
Arsene Wenger's side a chance in the return leg at Camp Nou on March 16.
"Barcelona
is a great team," Wenger told BT Sport. "We put a lot of energy in
the game and technically we were very average.
"The
regret I had was once we looked like we dominate the game, we gave the goal
away.
"Similar
to Monaco last season, naive, and that is frustrating. When we looked like we
could win the game, we just gave it away.
"Realistically
it is very, very difficult, if not impossible. We have to go there and fight.
We had the chances, we didn't score."
Juventus
fightback
Juventus
came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Bayern Munich in Turin.
Thomas
Muller and Arjen Robben had given the visitors a two-goal lead as Pep
Guardiola's men took control.
Juventus,
which reached the final last season where it was beaten by Barcelona, fought
back with Paulo Dybala and Stefano Sturaro on target.
The
two teams will meet in Munich on March 16 to decide which team makes it through
to the last eight.
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