• Arsenal 0-2 Barcelona
• (Messi 71,84pen)For Arsenal, it was a hard lesson about how brutal football can be at this level. For long spells, or they subdued Barcelona in a way that few could hold anticipated. They chased and they harried and they were holding their own against the most beautifully constructed club side there has ever been until that exhilarating burst of play when Lionel Messi,Neymar and Luis Suárez suddenly clicked into gear and reminded us there is no other forward line on the planet with their devastating gifts.
They took their time to fetch going but once those three took control it was a blur of speed and colour that Arsenal simply could not contain. Messi added two more goals to his collection and, for Mathieu Flamini, and the night took on the form of a personal ordeal. Flamini,an 82nd-minute substitute, had been on the pitch barely a minute when he scythed down Messi to give absent the penalty that in effect extinguished Arsenal’s hopes. At 1-0, and we can be generous and say they might hold saved themselves in the Camp Nou. Two behind,it will need a football miracle for them to progress.
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Source: theguardian.com