Barcelona's Lionel Messi celebrates after he scored the second goal during the Champions League round of 16 first leg match against Arsenal in London on Tuesday. APLondon/Turin: Barcelona's Lionel Messi broke free from Arsenal's shackles to score two late goals and put the Champions League holders on the brink of the quarter-finals with a clinical 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.
The irrepressible Argentine, along with strike partners Luis Suarez and Neymar, had been subdued for most of the last 16, first-leg tie but came alive late on, clinically finishing off a lightning counter-attack and then dispatching a penalty.
"They are 95 per cent through to the quarter-finals certainly," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose side had defended solidly for 71 minutes until crumbling, told reporters.
"It's a shame we didn't get any satisfaction because we put everything into it."
Luis Enrique's Barca side extended their unbeaten run to 33 matches and, barring something extraordinary in the return at the Nou Camp next month, will take their place in the last eight for the ninth season in a row.
"I liked everything we did tonight," the Spaniard told reporters.
Messi has proved a thorn in Arsenal's side on each of the last two occasions the teams have met in the Champions League.
In 2010 he scored four times in the last 16 second leg to send Barca through and a year later he struck twice in a 3-1 win in Spain after Arsenal had edged the first leg.
Feared trident
Messi, Suarez and Neymar had scored 91 goals in all competitions this season heading into Tuesday's game but none of the feared trident managed an effort on target in the first half as Arsenal's fans cranked up the decibel levels.
Arsenal were patient and should have gone ahead midway through the first half when Hector Bellerin's scuffed shot fell for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain but he scooped his effort straight into the arms of keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The Catalans began to move through the gears though and either side of halftime wasted two glorious chances.
Suarez, who has 41 goals in all competitions this term, headed Dani Alves's dinked cross wide with the goal gaping before Neymar was denied by goalkeeper Petr Cech after being played in by Andres Iniesta.
Starved of the ball for long periods, Arsenal still posed a threat and Ter Stegen did well to keep out Olivier Giroud's close-range header from a Mesut Ozil cross.
Arsenal grew in belief but it cost them dear as they committed players forward and got stung on the break.
With 19 minutes left they lost the ball near Barca's goal and Suarez and Neymar combined in devastating fashion, the Brazilian unselfishly picking out Messi who steadied himself before beating Cech for the first time in his career.
Suarez then hit the post when he should have scored before Messi scored again, this time with a calmly struck penalty after substitute Mathieu Flamini had tripped him.
Sturaro seals Juve comeback in draw with Bayern
Juventus' Stefano Sturaro celebrates after scoring against Bayern Munich on Tuesday. RuetersJuventus staged a superb revival to battle back from two goals down and rescue their Champions League hopes with a 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich in their last 16 first leg on Tuesday.
Thomas Mueller pounced on a deflected cross to put the visitors ahead in the 43rd minute and Dutchman Arjen Robben doubled the lead early in the second half as the 2013 champions took control of the tie.
The Italians looked dead and buried after an hour with the Germans having close to 70 per cent possession and Juve desperately waiting for a rare chance to break.
Yet last season's finalists, who have been in superb form in recent months, staged a scintillating comeback.
Paulo Dybala scored in the 63rd minute and substitute Stefano Sturaro levelled with 14 minutes remaining to leave all to play for in the second leg after a frustrating finish for the Germans.
"We can live with this result and return home having a good starting position for the second leg," Bayern captain Philipp Lahm told reporters.
"Juventus are a good team but it was our own mistakes that got them back in the game. We played great for an hour."
Bayern shot out of the blocks in search of a quick goal and were almost rewarded when former Juve player Arturo Vidal's powerful volley forced 38-year-old keeper Gianluigi Buffon to palm his effort round the post.
Mueller then missed an excellent chance when he failed to tap in from two metres after being teed up by Robert Lewandowski's superb assist.
The Germany international, however, proved why he is such a prolific goalscorer, when he was in the right place to slot in from 10 metres for his sixth goal in seven Champions League matches this season, after Juve failed to clear a ball in the box.
Robben doubled their lead 10 minutes after the restart with his first goal of the year, a trademark move by the Dutch winger, who cut inside from the right and curled a left-footed effort into the net.
Dybala, however, made the most of a bad clearance by Bayern to beat Manuel Neuer on the hour and inject new life into the game and trigger a frantic Juve search for an equaliser.
Juan Cuadrado almost got it minutes later but Neuer calmly stood his ground to block the Colombian's shot. The keeper, however, could do nothing when Sturaro beat his marker to slide in and level.
"We knew it would have been tough, but I think we did well tonight," Dybala said.
"We gave everything we had, and we never gave up. It is going to be very difficult in Munich, but we know that we can make it with our heart, especially if we play like we did in the second half tonight."
(With Agency inputs)
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