From the scoreboard here at the Nou Camp came the words that
will live long in the memory of Arsene Wenger and his Arsenal
players. ‘GOOOOOOOL DE MESSI,’ it screamed, after 21, 37 and 42
minutes of a mesmerising first half and 42 minutes of a second that
wasn’t too shabby either.
If this Barcelona team are the best Wenger has ever seen, Lionel
Messi must rank high among the finest players Arsenal’s manager has
cast his expert eye over. A player now standing proudly in the
pantheon of great number 10s.
A player whose extraordinary gifts position him alongside Pele,
Maradona and Zidane, Platini and Gullit. ‘He has made the
impossible possible,’ gushed Wenger before comparing him to a
computer-generated figure on PlayStation.
Perfect 10: Lionel Messi - Barca's magical No10 -
issued a swift rebuke to Arsenal's opener by instantly firing in an
equaliser on the night
Great Dane: Nicklas Bendtner put Arsenal into a
dream lead to go ahead in the tie after latching onto his rebounded
save from Valdes
Two good: Messi splits the Arsenal defence for the
second time shortly after his first to put Barca in the
lead
Over and out: With sublime skill Messi breaks
through to lob Almunia and seal his first-half hat-trick,
shattering Arsenal's Erupean dream
Simply the best: Messi makes it four as Almunia and
his Arsenal defence are left to rue the awesome ability of the
Argentinian ace
He was astonishing here at the Nou Camp last night. An explosion
of pace, skill and artistry to which Arsenal had no answer. To
which no team, in fairness to a static Arsenal defence
significantly weakened by the absence of William Gallas and Alex
Song, could seriously expect to respond.
Mesmerised: Theo Walcott
The diminutive Argentinian they had to feed growth hormone has
become a giant of the global game. The world’s highest paid player
and rightly so judging by this one-man demolition of an Arsenal
side that dared to dream when Nicklas
Bendtner secured the most unlikely of leads in the 18th minute.
‘We have come back from the dead,’ declared Wenger after seeing
his side score two late goals in that similarly stunning first leg
and he probably thought so again when his towering Danish striker
struck. But Messi quickly saw to it that they did not live on for
long.
For the 17 minutes prior to Bendtner’s goal, Barcelona had given
them another masterclass in passing football. The kind of football
that has set a new benchmark. The kind of football Wenger has long
aspired to but has so far only seen these classy Catalans
deliver.
He has got close with players like Thierry Henry, Patrick
Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires, but never quite to the
standard now being set by Pep Guardiola’s European champions.
Messi shone brightest here, using both feet to score four goals
for the first time in his career and taking his tally for the
season to 39. But the gene pool of genius, largely developed in
this club’s academy, spreads beyond Messi and into players like
Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta.
They did exactly what Guardiola said they would when he was
asked, on the eve of this encounter, how to combat the pace of a
player like Theo Walcott. By keeping the ball and therefore
limiting Arsenal’s opportunities to unleash their English
thoroughbred. Just like they did in north London, they enjoyed 70
per cent of the possession in a distinctly one-sided first
half.
There could be no complaints from a chastened Arsenal. They only
got back into this tie because of the way Barcelona eased off after
two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the Emirates and this time
they made sure there was no repeat.
Only a team with a more physical approach can hope to compete
with Barcelona. A team like Chelsea, as we saw in last season’s
competition, or possibly the Inter Milan side Jose Mourinho will
now prepare for what promises to be a fascinating semi-final.
A real clash of cultures as well as two of the most interesting
managers
in the game.
No way through: Sergi Busquets keeps Denilson of
Arsenal (right) away from the Barca goal
BARCELONA (4-3-3):
Valdes; Alves, Marquez, Milito, Abidal (Maxwell 53min); Xavi,
Busquets, Keita; Pedro (Iniesta 86), Messi, Bojan (Toure 55).
ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Almunia;
Sagna, Vermaelen, Silvestre (Eboue 63), Clichy; Denilson, Diaby;
Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky (Eduardo 73); Bendtner.
Booked: Eboue, Rosicky,
Denilson.
Man of the match: Lionel
Messi.
Referee: Wolfgang Stark
(Germany).
Arsenal cannot become such a side, and the challenge now facing
them is how they react to this quarter-final defeat. Wenger praised
his players for their strength of character and they will have to
be strong to deal with so demoralising an experience.
They may feel like that Tony Hancock character who has to deal
with the crushing realisation, when in Paris, that his art is
actually juvenile garbage.
This Arsenal team are better than that, of course. But there
could be a painful period of introspection when they reflect on
just how ineffective they were against Barcelona’s
superior beings. Not even the fact that they were also missing Cesc
Fabregas and Robin van Persie is likely to remove that feeling of
inferiority.
From the very start they were made to look like the statues in
the Nou Camp museum, frozen seemingly by the fluency of Barcelona’s
passing and the fluidity of their movement.
Net loss: Gael Clichy and Mikael Silvestre after
Barcelona's Lionel Messi had completed his hat-trick
Wenger had told them not to be intimidated but he did so in
vain.
That Arsenal actually led this tie for three minutes is hard to
believe.
But when Abou Diaby suddenly won the ball off Gabriel Milito
with a crunching challenge, he then sent Walcott clear with the
best pass Arsenal produced all night. Walcott sprinted clear,
played the ball into Bendtner when he probably should have shot,
and then watched in relief when his colleague shrugged off the
challenge of Daniel Alves and reacted to the sight of Victor Valdes
saving his first effort by scoring with his second.
While Barcelona protested furiously because of what they
considered to be Diaby’s foul challenge, their anger subsided the
moment Messi struck his first of the night.
A goal that owed much to Mikael Silvestre’s failure to clear the
ball and instead play it back into Messi’s path, but was still the
result of a quite stunning left-footed finish.
Relatively quiet in the first leg, Messi was really starting to
come to life in this game.
He skipped past five Arsenal players before Denilson stopped him
with a challenge
that earned him a booking and then he terrorised Silvestre again
before driving a right-footed shot into the side-netting.
A second was nevertheless inevitable and it arrived in the 37th
minute, yet more desperate defending allowing Pedro Rodriguez to
seize on Thomas Vermaelen’s failure to deal with a cross from Eric
Abidal and play the ball back to his team-mate.
Having started the move, Messi finished, this time with his
right foot.
Four minutes after that and he had struck his third, this time
with a demonstration of his speed as well as his skill.
Seydou Keita put him clear with a perfectly executed header
before Messi lifted the ball over the advancing Manuel Almunia and
sent it bouncing into the net.
After the break and Barcelona continued to dominate, albeit with
a touch more caution.
Until, that is, Messi beat three Arsenal defenders and responded
to a decent save from Almunia by driving the ball through the
Arsenal goalkeeper’s legs.
Through the agony, Wenger had no choice but to express his
admiration.