Barcelona 4-0 Stuttgart (aggregate 5-1)
Pep Guardiola watched his side waltz to the Champions League quarter-finals
Wednesday, 17, Mar 2010 09:43
By Martyn Thomas.
Lionel Messi bagged a brilliant brace to ease holders Barcelona past Stuttgart 4-0 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate to reach the last eight of the Champions League.
Pedro and Bojan - with his first touch - added the other strikes as Barcelona ran out comfortable winners at the Camp Nou.
Christian Gross had sent his side out to grab an early goal, but the night belonged to Messi, who can count himself unlucky not to have scored his second hat-trick in four days.
Stuttgart arrived at the Camp Nou knowing that they needed to score at least once, thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic's goal in the VfB Arena - his first ever strike in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
No mean feat at the best of times, but with Messi high on confidence after an outrageous hat-trick against Valencia at the weekend, it looked like mission impossible.
The visitors started gamely, pressing their hosts high up the pitch and enjoying large spells of possession in an open first 10 minutes.
Barca never really looked in danger of falling behind however, and after warning shots from Messi and Pedro, it was the former who put them in front after 13 minutes.
And, almost typically it came from a counter attack. As Stuttgart switched the ball out to the right, Stefano Celozzi's ball into the box was easily cleared by Carlos Puyol, before Yaya Toure picked up on the loose ball.
As the Ivorian drove into the open spaces in midfield, he played it onto the mercurial Argentinean. From there it was all about Messi, who danced towards goal before unleashing a curling 20-yard shot beyond the clutches of Jens Lehmann.
The former Arsenal keeper had just changed his gloves - he needn't have bothered.
If that goal didn't actually change Stuttgart's task - they still needed to score to force extra-time - the hosts soon put some daylight between the two sides.
After some patient build-up play, Messi took control playing a delicious chip inside the full-back, Celozzi, for the onrushing Toure who drew Lehmann out and slotted the ball inside to give Pedro a simple finish.
The young winger scored in all six competitions his side won in 2009, and this was yet another important strike.
2-0 down, and with three quarters of the tie to play, many would have expected Stuttgart to capitulate.
In truth, Barca could have gone further in front after 28 minutes, but after good play from Toure down the left, Thierry Henry was just unable to make contact with the midfielder's centre.
Stuttgart looked like they were playing for half-time and Gross would have been happy to hear the whistle with his side only two goals down.
Whatever the ex-Tottenham boss said during the break, it didn't seem to make much difference as the Germans struggled to contain their illustrious opponents.
Barcelona could have extended their lead with a little over ten minutes of the second period played. Messi showed great persistence to keep the move going before teeing up Toure on the edge of the area.
However, the excellent Toure could only fire a shot wide.
If the home side were playing with a swagger, it was justified, and they put the tie beyond doubt after an hour.
Pedro made an excellent break down the right before pulling an inch perfect pull-back into the path of Dani Alves. Without checking, the right-back audaciously back-heeled the ball into Messi, who spun his marker before firing low across Lehmann from the edge of the area.
It was scant reward for the visitors' positive early play but few teams in the world could live with Barcelona in this mood.
Just to add insult to injury, Pep Guardiola sent on Ibrahimovic when Sergio Busquets was forced off with injury, having originally planned to replace Thierry Henry.
And if they hadn't before, with four forwards on the pitch, the home side scented blood. First, Lehmann had to put at his best to keep out a Messi header, and deny the little playmaker his hat-trick.
Then, after an outrageous corner-kick routine involving Messi and Andres Iniesta, Alves couldn't quite find Henry, or the goal, with his header.
Messi went close again late on with after a mazy run before Bojan came off the bench to put the seal on a truly dominant win for the holders.
In the other tie of the night, Bordeaux went through as a late Marouane Chamakh header thwarted a late Olympiakos comeback.
After Matt Derbyshire and Alou Diarra saw red, Konstantinos Mitroglou cancelled out Yoann Gourcuff's earlier strike. However, Chamakh and Bordeaux had the last laugh as they won 2-1 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.
Barcelona: Valdes; Dani Alves, Pique, Puyol, Maxwell; Toure, Iniesta (Bojan), Busquests (Ibrahimovic); Henry (Milito), Messi, Pedro
Subs not used: Pinto, Marquez, Keita, Jeffren
Stuttgart: Lehman; Molinaro, Niedermaier, Delpierre, Celozzi; Trasch, Hleb, Khedira, Kuzmanovic; Cacau, Progrebniak (Marica)
Subs not used: Stolz, Osorio, Boulahrouz, Gebhart, Rudy, Hilbert