Magical Lionel Messi hits four to wreck Gunners’ Euro dream as champions cruise into last four

Barcelona win 6 3 on aggregateFrom 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 moncler outlet half and moncler outlet online 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.

cheap moncler outlet 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. cheap moncler outlet

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.

moncler outlet jackets ‘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. moncler outlet jackets

cheap moncler jackets sale For the 17 minutes prior to Bendtner’s goal, Barcelona had given them another masterclass in passing cheap moncler outlet 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. cheap moncler jackets sale

moncler outlet sale He has got close with players like Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, cheap moncler Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires, but never quite to the standard now being set by Pep Guardiola’s European champions. moncler outlet sale

moncler outlet store Messi shone brightest here, using both feet to score four goals for the first time in his career and taking his tally moncler mens jackets 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. moncler outlet store

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.

moncler jackets outlet There could be no complaints from a chastened Arsenal. They buy moncler jackets 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. moncler jackets outlet

Only a team with a more physical approach can hope to compete with Barcelona. A team like Chelsea, as moncler sale we saw in last season’s competition, or possibly the Inter Milan side Jose Mourinho cheap moncler jackets will now prepare for what promises to be a fascinating semi final.

cheap moncler coats A real clash of cultures as well as two of the most interesting managers cheap moncler coats

in the game.

cheap moncler jackets 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. cheap moncler jackets

They may feel like that Tony Hancock character who has moncler sale outlet to deal with the crushing realisation, when in Paris, that his art is actually juvenile garbage.

moncler sale This Arsenal team are better than that, of course. But monlcer down jackets there could be a painful period of introspection when they reflect on just how ineffective they were against Barcelona’s moncler sale

moncler outlet uk superior beings. Not even the fact that they were also missing Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie moncler outlet store is likely to remove that feeling of inferiority. moncler outlet uk

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.

moncler factory outlet That Arsenal actually led this tie for three minutes is hard to monclerdownjacket believe. moncler factory outlet

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.

moncler jacket sale 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. moncler jacket sale

A goal that owed much to Mikael Silvestre’s failure to clear the ball and instead play moncler outlet sale 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 moncler outlet 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.

moncler outlet online 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 cheap moncler coats a cross from Eric Abidal and play the ball back to his team mate. moncler outlet online

moncler sale outlet Having started the move, Messi finished, this time with his right foot. moncler sale outlet

moncler outlet Four minutes after that and he had struck his third, this time with a demonstration of his speed as well as his skill moncler outlet.

Author Info

admin