Barcelona’s injury-plagued €105m French forward scored his first goal for the club against Chelsea, but the Argentinian had the final word as ever
Five men slammed on the brakes simultaneously. Together they had been running towards Lionel Messi and together they turned and ran away from him again, as if he had flicked a switch, as if he had some kind of control over them. Which, in a way, he did. The moment that led to the second goal on a night which ended with the Camp Nou roaring their team into the quarter-finals, was an encapsulation of the power that ultimately took them there.
Messi twice sent shots through the legs of Thibaut Courtois and into the net, in the third minute and the 64th, but it was the assist for the second that effectively ended this and there was something in that image, in the way it came in the 19th minute, that may even have said as much as him scoring.
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