Lionel Messi stole the show in the Nou Camp last night as Barcelona beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
For 75 minutes it was almost going to plan for the German side as Pep Guardiola kept his old side at bay.
Previewing the match Guardiola had stated that Messi was unstoppable adding quickly that it wasn’t an attempt to play mind games with the Celtic supporting superstar.
Throughout the match Messi was threatening the Bayern defence demonstrating a masterclass of trickery with only Manuel Neuer preventing the Catalan’s from taking the lead.
Within the space of five minutes the tie turned Barcelona’s way with a double from Messi- the second goal showing the same technique that Henrik Larsson used to humiliate Stefan Klos in the 6-2 match.
After the stunning Messi show Barca boss Luis Enrique: “Of course life is easier with Lionel Messi. He does all sorts of things, we see that every day, he is from another planet. Besides what we saw from Leo, all the other forwards, midfielders and defenders contributed a lot too.
“In a semi-final, small details make the difference. We have three extremely good players in attack– Leo won it for us. We pressed well, waited for the right moment and were very clinical at the end.
Guardiola admitted: “After it went to 1-0 we lost momentum and the last goal was too much. Barça is Leo– but Barça are also a very good team and they are in top form in all departments.
“All their players, Neymar, Luis Suárez … the best way to control them is to restrict their play. We were poorly positioned for the first two goals and the third was almost inevitable.”