TWO SUPERB goals from Argentina’s soccer star, Lionel Messi, on Tuesday night against Manchester United, helped La Liga giant, FC Barcelona to progress to the semin-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Messi opened the scoreline against the English Premier League side on the 16th minute of the first half.
Four minutes later, he doubled the score, increasing his Champions League goals for this season to 10.
After suffering a 1-0 home defeat in the first leg played on Old Trafford, Man United was down 3-0 aggregate in the first half of the second leg, making their chances of progressing to the semifinals an elusive venture.
Brazilian international, P. Coutinho worsened the case for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Man United side when he increased the Camp Nou scoreline to 3-0 on the 61th minute.
Man United succeeded in performing magic in Paris against PSG in the second leg of the round of 16 but Camp Nou was a no magic ground for the English side as the Talisman, Messi, inspired a convincing victory for Barcelona.
Barcelona would face either Liverpool or FC Porto in the semifinals.
Ronaldo Out!
In Italy, Portuguese’s international, Cristiano Ronaldo had his dream of reaching the Champions League final with Juventus brought to a sad end as Dutch side,Ajax defeated Juve 2-1, progressing to the semifinals on an aggregate of 3-2.
Ronaldo, a five-time winner of the Champions League, gave Juventus the lead from a first-half corner on the 28th minute.
But Ajax leveled, thanks to a goal from Donny van de Beek who controlled Hakim Ziyech’s shot and slotted past Wojciech Szczesny on the 34th minute.
Ziyech came close to doubling the scoreline for Ajax shortly after the break before De Ligt, up from the back, scored a decisive, powerful header.
The away-goals rule left Juventus needing two in the remaining 23 minutes.
However, it could have been more comfortable for the Dutch team in the closing stages with David Neres shooting wide and Ziyech flagged offside after whipping a smart shot into the top corner.
BY Melvin Tarlue