Champions League - Sanchez double puts Barcelona in control
Two goals from Alexis Sanchez ensured Barcelona enjoyed a 3-1 victory away at Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.
The defending European champions dominated for large periods at the BayArena and are now firm favourites to progress to the quarter-finals for the fifth season in succession thanks to a fine full Champions League debut from their Chilean forward, and another virtuoso performance from Lionel Messi.
Sanchez, who struggled with injury during the group stages, opened the scoring after 41 minutes of a first half in which Leverkusen were lamentably negative on home turf. However, the Bundesliga side opened up in the second half and equalised through Michal Kadlec before a quick response from Sanchez put Barca back in front.
Messi produced a superb performance when spraying the ball about and executing some trademark dribbles from his free role in attack, but having earlier hit the post finally secured a deserved goal, and a 28th in his past 29 Champions League starts, when converting with two minutes remaining.
Barcelona had never ceded the majority of possession in their previous 44 Champions League games under Pep Guardiola and it became quickly apparent that particular statistic would not be in jeopardy in Germany. While Barca were as accomplished as ever with the ball at their feet, Leverkusen looked hesitant and unconvincing in front of their home supporters.
The consequence was that the Bundesliga side spent much of the first half chasing the ball and were unable to seriously trouble Victor Valdes in the away goal. Indeed, as Barca monopolised possession and restricted Leverkusen to only sporadic snatches of opportunity, it became apparent how they were able to restrict their opponents to just seven shots on target during the duration of the group stage.
As excellent as they have been in Europe, unconvincing performances away from home are the reason Barca sit 10 points behind Real Madrid in La Liga and in Germany they struggled to replicate the brilliance that has accompanied many of their performances at Camp Nou.
Messi, hunted down in packs whenever he got the ball, fired one shot at Bernd Leno after taking a ball over the top from Dani Alves on his chest, while Adriano, stationed out wide on the left with Pedro sat on the bench, drove another effort wildly off target.
But with Leverkusen remaining remarkably subdued, it only took one moment of excellence from Messi to open them up after 41 minutes: the forward took possession of the ball inside the centre circle before flicking it into the right channel with a glorious pass off the outside of his boot.
Both Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas charged forward to meet the ball but it was the former who got there first and he fired a shot between the legs of Leno for his first Champions League goal. It was just reward for the only side with the aptitude or intent to try and use the ball constructively.
But despite failing to create a single chance in the first half, Leverkusen were level after seven minutes of the second. Vedran Corluka, a January signing from Tottenham, did superbly well to get away from Eric Abidal and hook a cross in for Kadlec, who arrived at the back post and leapt above Sanchez to steer his header home.
Their lead lasted all of three minutes. Sanchez was afforded too much space when racing onto a perfectly-weighted through-ball from Fabregas and the Chile international took a touch to go wide of the onrushing Leno before converting with a neat finish inside the near post.
What had previously been a rather sanitised contest suddenly erupted and Leverkusen caught the new mood perfectly when quickly responding with another excellent chance. Renato Augusto managed to bundle his way past a number of Barca bodies before finding enough space in the box to fire in a low effort that forced Valdes into a smart low save to his right.
The Barca keeper, underemployed in the first half, was found to be in excellent form again after 65 minutes as Gonzalo Castro raced onto a headed pass and fired a firm low effort across the keeper. Valdes flung out his left arm and got the faintest of touches on the ball to turn it against the base of the post.
Leverkusen were benefiting from a far more positive attitude than that which was on display during the first half, but they could never negate the inherent threat posed by Messi and on 73 minutes he was desperately unlucky not to add a third. Coming in off the right, Messi darted between two markers with a turn of pace and lifted the ball over Leno, only to see his effort come off the outside of the near post.
A seventh goal in six Champions League games this season appeared to have eluded the Argentina star, who then forced Leno into a low save after driving into the box from a central position and firing back across goal.
But, after Stefan Kiessling and Sanchez had exchanged headed chances, Messi did etch his name on the scoresheet. He was the creator once again, playing in Alves with a sliding pass, and then raced forward some 25 yards to get on the end of the right back's unselfish cross to slide the ball home.
Messi became the most prolific South American in the history of European competition with 45 goals and in the process all but ensured Barca will progress to the quarter-finals following the second leg at Camp Nou.
Comment 66 - 85 of 85
Vicente, all I can say man is I would like to have a beer with you. I couldn't agree with you more! Respect.
Hi Jón. Why can't we get on well with each other, Merengones and Culés?. That would be utopia man... I guess we´ve got the perfect mixture of sport, politics, linguistics, wars ( civil wars and "guerras Carlistas" as well ) and taxation too in this country of mine, the poor Spain. Love somebody from Madrid in the littoral regions?... Yeah, well, sure and what else... the rivalry and hating is shared; you can choose being a centralist or a separatist, right wing or left wing, monarchist or republican, only speak spanish or also catalan, gallego or euskara or even bable and calé... But being both at the same time?. Real and Barça embody different ways of life, of thinking, even different religions too... centralism equals being close to power and the catholic church and the oppressing boot of the Francoism whereas the coastal areas will always oppose to that with freedom of speech in either language, religion, beliefs, politics you may choose. Those are two behemoths always clashing into each other, two mammoths pushing and butting endlessly and that makes them grow gigantic in the process. Let us just enjoy it while it lasts, that is the only thing we can do. I do respect Madrid being a Barça fan, knowing we wouldn't be half of what we are were not for them and the other way around too. Simply enjoy them man... Deep inside the teams and players they even like each other. Look for instance the legends Raul and Guardiola, very close friends and captains of their respective teams. It would be good for Real if Raul would become such a good coach as he is as a player, and takes the place of the unpresentable Mourinho.
Some people writed here Leverkusen is a weak team, not a treat... This was a CL round 16 game! Chelsea and Valencia lost already in this competition in the BayArena! And a german team will always be difficult to beat. So these peoples talking nonsense. Visca el Barca!!!
boring.boring Barcelona. tippy tappy no contact football, overrated lightweights at least real have passion an heart ,a charging thoroughbred not fancy show ponies.i couldnt think of anything worse then to have to watch them if you didn't support them
*Rossell, not Laporta, sorry.
Morituri, I agree completely. The same goes for those Barca fans who insult Real at Real Madrid articles. Also for many Barca fans apparently the first thing to do after a Barca win is to insult Madrid fans (the same holds also for some Madrid fans, I know). Why can't we be friends? Why must we be at war? We insult Messi and Ronaldo, but Messi would never make fun of Ronaldo, or vice versa. Perez and Laporta sit next to each other at Clasicos. Why can't we also shake hands and talk to each other like fellow human beings?
I can understand someone to support Real M over Barca but why go over every forum to rubbish your rivals ? why not go where they talk about Real to praise it and declare your love ? What's with all the negative energy ? Surely you can use all that anger in a more positive way ? You can go clean the streets, wash public toilets, you name it it's all out there for you, the possibilities are endless, go on have some fun.
Dream Team, looks like you add up stats you like and discard stats you don't like. Barca have been consistently better than RM since Pep took over but the gap is getting closer. Anyway obviously every football fan (me included) is at least a little bit biased, so there's not much use taking these debates seriously. Could we all be friends?
Messi is overrated, I believe Jonjo Shelvey is the best player in the world. He would easily force messi out of the barca team. Jonjo will be remembered as the greatest player the world has ever seen, better than pele, maradonna, henry, hesky etc.
lolz barca is a joke beat BM in germany and i might be slightly impressed.
one correction, Messi scored Barcelonas 5000 la liga goal in February 2009, that is 3 years ago, and madrid just scored their 4000 la liga goals last week, that is 3 years after and 1000 goals difference. So now Barca has over 1200 goals over madrid in la liga history.
look at mambo jambo, still living in the past when franco won them all the trophies. why don't you live in the present mambo jambo, your pathetic team has won 1 trophy in the last 3 and a half years, Barca has 13 trophies. Barca has won 3 trophies already this season, that is 2 more trophies than madrid has won in the last 3 and a half years. Barca also has another final to play in king cup and are favorite in the champions league. So if they win 5 out of 6 trophies this year, it would be a great season for Barca. So don't go counting the trophies without winning them first mambo jambo, and you to be proud of madrid 4000 la liga goals, let me remind you that Messi scored Barcas 5000 la liga goals in last season, that is over a 1000 goals that Barca has over madrid in la liga.
Congratulations to Barcelona. You deserve to be in the quarters. It would be cool if Madrid and Barca fans could stop insulting each other personally, but that seems out of the question.
@ Otori, you are right, most of these madrid fans that say hala madrid don't even know what it actually means, they just say it to think they are cool. I would be ashamed to say that when my team can't beat their rivals and lose 10 out of the 14 matches they played, and win thanks to the ref. Every time Barca plays madrid, they turn hala madrid to haha madrid because they make madrid a club to laugh at.
LOL .. so you could say the Germans suffered a 'Dirty Sanchez' ....
The most annoying thing here is that, all these hala madrid fans posting and posting in this page, were actually the fans of the struggling Clubs in EPL to even reach top 4. hahahahahahahahaha!!!
Too many Madridista scumbags, full of envy and hate . What else is new ?
One horse race since united went out....am sure barca will stroll it to the silverware...
I love how Madrid fans come on the Barca page to vent their anger and celebrate their position in La Liga. Remember it is just a sport. I am not a huge football fan but I admire the skill of Barcelona and respect Guardiola for showing control and leadership in his team Madrid have had more success in LL and CL, but let Barca enjoy this time. They have been the better side over these past 3 years that Madrid have shown more vanity than skill. I live in Spain and it is a shame how blinkered Madrid fans are. It seems that no other team is allowed to do well here, there is bitter resentment not sporting at all.
Barcelona played well against an average German side last night. It's a good job they don't have to play every week against sides of the calibre of Osasuna though!! Aupa Rojos!!!
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