The world’s best player, Lionel Messi, managed to be the difference yet again between his side and their opponents. This time, the victim was Arsenal. The Gunners are on track for yet another embarrassing early Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona. Despite Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud coming close to scoring, Barcelona were never going to lose that game. The Catalans are now unbeaten in the past 33 games with 109 goals and only 19 conceded.
It took Barcelona 71 minutes to break the deadlock thanks to the efforts of Messi who was able to finally scores against Petr Cech after just over 10 hours of play! Seven minutes later, the same player scored from the penalty spot increasing his tally up to eight goals against Arsenal. Messi 2016 was very much similar to Messi 2011 against Arsenal despite playing a different role. The Gunners were unlucky to be drawn a strong team such as Barcelona so early on, especially when Barcelona are on form domestically in both La Liga and the Champions League.
Arsenal were unlucky to concede a penalty just 47 seconds after Mathieu Flamini entered the pitch and this was the first time they have failed to scored in 14 Champions League tickets. Despite their quality, the Gunners were never going to stand in the way of Barcelona. The away fixture is yet to be played but Arsenal stand very little chance of putting three goals past Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Luis Enrique’s side has become very pragmatic. They know how to win games even if they weren’t able to play well.
The Blaugrana are looking forward to win their upcoming two games against Sevilla and Ray Vallecano or at least avoid losing them in a bid to break Real Madrid’s record of 34 games without a loss. Fourteen wins in the past 15 games speaks volumes for Luis Enrique’s men, but can they keep on doing it until late May?
