Lionel Messi was at his imperious best as he bagged a fourth hatrick of 2010 and then he found a forth to defeat Arsenal 4-1 and 6-3 on aggregate to send Barcelona into the final four of Europe’s prestige competition.
Arsenal took a surprise lead when Diaby sent Theo Walcott through and the Barcelona backline couldn’t catch him – he then teed up Nicklas Bendtner, whose shot was initially saved by Victor Valdes before he kept his cool to poke in the rebound.
But that was as good as it got for Arsenal as Lionel Messi conjured an immediate response, hammering in a fierce left-foot shot from 20 yards into the top left-hand corner of Manuel Almunia’s net after the ball fell to him after a fortunate ricochet. Shortly after that became 2-1 as Lionel Messi played a fabulous pass down the left to Eric Abidal and his low cross along the six-yard box was only half-cleared by Thomas Vermaelen, to Pedro who laid the ball to Messi, with the Argentine racing past a flat-footed Mikael Silvestre and coolly lifting it over Manuel Almunia from eight yards.
Moments later all 98,000 people in the Camp Nou were bowing to Lionel Messi, and you couldn’t blame the Arsenal fans for joining in. The Gunners gave the ball away on halfway and Seydou Keita headed it forward for Messi, who was then all of a sudden clean through on goal. When Manuel Almunia comes out to meet him, the world’s finest footballer chipped the ball gloriously over the Spanish goalkeeper for a first half hatrick and a 5-3 aggregate lead.
The second half was a quieter affair but Messi was able to make history by scoring four goals in one game for the first time in his career. He collected a Xavi pass 40 yards out with the Arsenal defence at sixes and sevens, he raced past one challenge, got into the box, sped past Thomas Vermaelen, and fired in a low shot that Manuel Almunia could only save with his leg and then he hammered the rebound through the keeper’s legs. And that concluded The Lionel Messi Show.
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