By David Lee Wheatley
Magical Messi mesmerises Milan
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg in the San Siro, Barcelona were faced with the knowledge that no team in Champions League history had come from two-down without the aid of an away goal.
Milan arrived in Catalonia full of heart after their rousing display of the first leg had seemingly put the Rossoneri in control of the tie. The Milanese giants were missing striker Pazzini, but still felt confident of progression.
From the outset, the home side attacked relentlessly, as most had predicted, in search of an early breakthrough. After 5 minutes it was already 1-0 on the evening through a spectacular goal from the world's greatest player, Lionel Messi. He rifled the ball past a helpless Abbiati to set Barca on their way.
A mistake by makeshift centre-back Javier Mascherano almost let the advantage slip, as a misplaced header sent Niang through one-on-one with Valdes. The Milan striker steadied himself before firing a low effort off the left-hand post. The all-important away goal Milan sought could've swung the tie back in their favour, but seeing the ball rebound off the woodwork and away signalled the end of their quarter-final dreams.
Barcelona stepped it up even more, assisted by Milan's insistence on giving the ball away in their own half. Lionel Messi was their nemesis again when he stepped back from an offside position that the referee's assistant failed to spot, before hammering home a left-foot thunderbolt to level the aggregate scores. The man is that good, I found myself forgiving him immediately for being offside!
All-square in the tie at half-time swiftly turned into 3-2 in Barca's favour with a sweet, arched finish by David Villa inside the box to send the Nou Camp into raptures.
Milan looked bedraggled by that stage and late on Jordi Alba ran an incredible 85 yards to latch on to a through-ball and end the tie as a contest. He slotted home low under Abbiati to complete the most remarkable of comebacks.
Barcelona were truly back to their best and no-one will want to face them in the last eight having witnessed their demolition of AC Milan.
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