Barcelona have ended Arsenal’s Champions League campaign for the second year running after once again giving Europe a football lesson with a 3-1 win in the last 16 second leg at Camp Nou on Tuesday.
Lionel Messi scored twice, the second a penalty, while Xavi also found the net as the Gunners were passed apart and eventually worn down. Arsenal had levelled at 1-1 thanks to a Sergio Busquets own goal (on a night when they did not manage an effort of their own on goal) but the harsh sending off of Robin van Perise sealed their fate, as Barca scored twice more to seal their place in the last eight with an overall 4-3 aggregate victory.
As had been speculated, van Persie started the match in the Gunners attack despite having been supposedly ruled out for three weeks with his knee injury in the aftermath of the Carling Cup final. Catalan product Cesc Fabregas was also in the starting line-up after his recent hamstring scare, though neither of Arsene Wenger’s star assets would have the ball where they wanted it for much of the night.
Right from the off Barca started an intense series of probing movements, but Laurent Koscielny started the game well and prevented both Pedro and Messi from latching onto typical attempted killer balls from the home side’s midfield laboratory. Samir Nasri and Jack Wilshere were having to drop and make defensive interceptions as well, and David Villa was offside as he collected another of Xavi’s probing passes.
Koscielny’s next tackle was not as perfect as his earlier ones as he received a yellow card for challenging Pedro, leading to a right-sided free-kick, which Daniel Alves pinged straight at Wojciech Szczesny from 25 yards. The save was easy for the young Pole, yet he dislocated his finger in collecting it and had to be replaced by Manuel Almunia in a relatively early blow for Wenger’s side.
Three weeks ago Barca bossed the play for most of the match despite their eventual Emirates loss, and the pattern from the off was the same in Catalan territory as van Persie cut an isolated figure up front, the ball not getting anywhere near him any time Arsenal tried to get forward. Instead, a collection of Barca bodies combined to press the visitors when they had possession, get the ball back instantly and keep it before continuing to launch probe after probe.
Arsenal continued to smother those attacks, but Barca just kept coming back at them and Pedro was not too far away when attempting a cultured curled effort after Johan Djourou had taken the ball off the toes of the alarmingly threatening Messi.
They were closer twice soon after, first when Almunia saved with ease from Villa, then when Bacary Sagna left space for home left back Adriano to run on to to Villa’s slipped pass and he thundered the ball against the near post with what might have been a miscued cross.
Wilshere and Sagna joined Koscielny in the referee’s book, both for tackles on Andres Iniesta, before a rare Arsenal foray into the opposition area saw van Persie win a corner that wasn’t. Pep Guardiola’s men cleared and tempers started to flare after Wilshere was grounded and Barcelona men thought he was playing up. Fabregas then got mouthy before van Persie added to the yellow cards for a shove on Alves.
All this ill discipline would have been fine for Arsenal had they kept their heads in terms of snuffing out Barca attacks in the five minutes’ stoppage-time at the end of the half, but Messi served notice of what was to come when bearing down on goal before being denied by Almunia.
And he would get another chance before the break. After a half in which his team just could not keep the ball, Fabregas bizarrely played a blind backheel to Iniesta’s feet and his compatriot punished him by finding Messi straight away on the right of the area. The world’s best was in and he brilliantly dinked the ball over Almunia, before smashing to the net from mid-air to give his side the advantage after a half in which they had had over 70 percent of the ball.
That was Messi’s 44th goal of the season and 32nd ever in the Champions League to break a club record. And he had the taste for it now as he threatened again early in the second half, though Arsenal themselves looked slightly more positive – and with that came a huge slice of luck and something to defend again!
It came eight minutes after the restart as Nasri won a corner on the left. The Frenchman took it and, as Abou Diaby rose in his shadow, Busquets contrived to head it over his own line for the softest of equalisers, and the goal that put Arsenal 3-2 up on aggregate.
Villa had a chance to level it overall straight away, but did not take it, only for Arsenal’s task to face a fresh incline when referee Massimo Busacca blew as van Persie was marginally offside when he raced onto a ball over the top. Van Persie had a crack anyway and put it wide, with the referee opting to hand him a second yellow card for kicking the ball away. The Dutchman fumed and pointed to the throngs of deafening supporters as he claimed he could not hear the whistle, but Busacca’s mind was made up and the Gunners had to play the last 35 minutes with ten men.
Were Barca sympathetic? Not in the slightest! Another surge of red and blue attacks began in earnest as Villa was denied again. Alves blazed over from Adriano’s cut back and Almunia then saved superbly when Villa was put in by a quite brilliant Messi through ball.
Arsenal were doing everything they could to keep the home side at bay, but when Barcelona do things right there is simply no living with them and the goal that made it 2-1 on the night was a prime example. Iniesta bombed forward as if the ball was attached to his foot, cutting left before touching to Villa, who knocked it through the middle to Xavi and he ran clear and calmly prodded beyond Almunia to make it 3-3 overall.
That score would have meant extra-time but that prospect was soon shelved, just two minutes later in fact when Koscielny felled Pedro in the area to concede a certain penalty. There was no second yellow for the Frenchman, but Messi did what was expected of him as he rolled number 45 of the season to Almunia’s left to put Barca in the lead overall.
A disconsolate Wenger threw on Andrey Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner for Tomas Rosicky and Fabregas to try and grab the one goal that would still see his side go through, but it was the other team’s sub Ibrahim Afellay who twice went closest to adding to the scoring. The second of his efforts from the left flank was well saved by Almunia, who also twice denied Messi another hat-trick against his side.
At the other end, Diaby managed to plod into the Barca area but could not fiind a shot at the end of it, while Wilshere created one great chance for Bendtner. However, after the youngster got forward on the right and crossed for the Dane, there was again no finish.
Barca got their feet on the ball thereafter and did not give it up again as another European season died for Arsenal, while Guardiola’s team of geniuses press on in their bid to make up for last year’s semi-final exit.