The peerless Lionel Messi was at his majestic best as Barcelona cruised into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 4-0 victory over an utterly bamboozled Stuttgart side at the Nou Camp on Wednesday night.
Fresh from his stunning hat-trick against Valencia at the weekend, Messi again treated Catalonia to a footballing masterclass, scoring two fine goals and creating another for Pedro.
Stuttgart had arrived in Barcelona confident of pulling off an upset after causing the reigning champions no end of trouble during their drawn first leg meeting in Germany a fortnight ago.
However, despite the absence of their principal playmaker Xavi, Barcelona, with their unrivalled brand of free-flowing football, dominated the game from start to finish.
Pedro, Henry and Messi had already threatened by the time the latter opened the scoring 13 minutes, unleashing a stunning drive into the top left corner of Jens Lehmann’s net after the Stuttgart defence had inexplicably allowed the Argentine to run right at them.
It was 2-0 just ten minutes later, Pedro sweeping home Yaya Toure’s cross after Messi had played the Ivorian in with a delightful chipped pass in behind the Stuttgart back-line.
Given Barca’s staggering superiority, what was surprising that they did not grab a third goal until the hour. It was worth the wait, though, Messi cleverly wrong-footing Lehmann with a low drive from the edge of the box after Dani Alves had flicked the ball into his path.
Messi was twice denied the hat-trick he so sorely deserved in the final half hour, first seeing his header well stopped before Lehmann before then watching on agonisingly as his dinked shot over the former Arsenal keeper trickled wide.
However, Barca did managed a fourth in the dying seconds, Bojan slotting home after being played in beautifully by another replacement in Zlatan Ibrahimovic.