Messi masterful as Barca renew Wembley love affair
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BERLIN: Lionel Messi and Neymar put on separate masterclasses in the Champions League on Wednesday, while Mohamed Salah lacked the spark to lift Liverpool.
Messi scored twice, helped create two more with perfect passes, and had two shots strike a post in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.
Neymar went one better with a brilliant hat-trick in Paris St Germain’s 6-1 rout of overmatched Red Star Belgrade. The French champions’ other superstar forward, Kylian Mbappe, also scored.
Salah was the star of Liverpool’s run to the final last season but has made a slow start this time, and the entire team failed to get a single shot on target in a 1-0 loss at Napoli. The winning goal came in the 90th minute from Lorenzo Insigne.
Barca’s impressive display extended the team’s perfect record at England’s national stadium four wins spread across 26 years, including the Messi-inspired 2011 Champions League final victory.
Messi now has five goals after two group games while Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to score for Juventus.
Antoine Griezmann scored twice in Atletico Madrid’s 3-1 win over Belgian champions Club Brugge.
Barca, who arrived in London winless in three La Liga matches, have a love affair with Wembley. Their first European Cup was won there in 1992, against Sampdoria, and so was the fourth of their five European titles in 2011, against Manchester United.
Now both North London rivals, Arsenal and Tottenham, have been beaten there by Barca in Champions League group-stage games.
It took just 92 seconds for Philippe Coutinho to open the scoring past Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who returned from a five-week injury absence, with Ivan Rakitic drilling in a magnificent second in the 28th.
Messi hit the post before Harry Kane halved the deficit in the 52th, but the Argentine forward restored the two-goal advantage within four minutes with a deft shot. Tottenham hit back through Messi’s Argentina team-mate Erik Lamela.
In the 90th minute, Messi was set up by Luis Suarez’s smart decision to let the ball roll past him, and extended his record against English clubs to 22 goals in 29 games.
“After a few bad results it was important to do well today. Our response was very good,” said Barca coach Ernesto Valverde.
The game was played on a field that was far from a typically pristine Wembley surface. Two weeks after the venue hosted boxer Anthony Joshua’s defense of his world heavyweight title, the center of the field had patches of brown grass.
Barca head Group ‘B’ on six points alongside Inter Milan, but Mauricio Pochettino’s side face a vital double-header against PSV Eindhoven after failing to collect a point from their opening two matches.
The Tottenham boss admitted Spurs had few answers for Messi as his team was left with an uphill struggle to reach the knockout stages.
“He’s a fantastic player,” said Pochettino. “His average performance is this type of game. He’s always above everything.”
Inter, the last Italian club to win the Champions League in 2010, again recovered from a goal down to beat PSV 2-1 in the Netherlands.
A cracking Pablo Rosario strike put PSV ahead, but Inter levelled through Radja Nainggolan moments after visiting goalkeeper Samir Handanovic somehow escaped a red card for handling outside his area.
Mauro Icardi, whose late goal stunned Spurs a fortnight ago, was the hero again for Luciano Spalletti’s men as he pounced on hesitant defending to net the winner on the hour.
Barca and Inter next face each other in back-to-back games, in Spain on October 24 and Italy on November 6.
NEYMAR BAGS HAT-TRICK
Neymar followed Paulo Dybala of Juventus and AS Roma’s Edin Dzeko in scoring a Champions League hat-trick this week.
The Brazilian’s star turn on home turf at Parc des Princes served as a riposte to critics of his lackluster performance when PSG lost 3-2 at Liverpool two weeks ago.
Red Star are a shadow of the club that were the 1991 European champions, and could hardly resist PSG’s star-studded attacking quartet.
Neymar curled in a sublime free-kick to open the scoring on 20 minutes, quickly doubling his tally before Edinson Cavani netted with a deflected shot in the 37th, Angel Di Maria made it 4-0 just before halftime, and Mbappe tapped in a fifth goal in the 70th.
Former Germany international Marko Marin popped up with a consolation for Red Star, with Neymar completing his hat-trick from another stunning free-kick.
“I really liked the effort made by the whole team, but Neymar was sensational,” said PSG coach Thomas Tuchel. “He is one of the best players in Europe and that is very, very important for us.”
Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli top Group ‘C’ on four points after Insigne delivered the winner at home to Liverpool, who are level on three alongside PSG.
Liverpool’s high energy style against PSG was missing in Naples, and Dries Mertens almost won it for Napoli with a shot that struck the crossbar minutes before Insigne nicked all three points at the death as he slid to poke in a cross from Jose Callejon.
“We never lost control,” Ancelotti said. “We were always very focused, above all when defending and allowed Liverpool practically nothing. Tonight we showed this group won’t just be hard for Napoli, but for everyone involved. It means a lot to us to have won against the finalists from last year.”
Atletico played their first home game in this season’s Champions League that ends with the final in the same Metropolitano Stadium on June 1.
Griezmann twice gave Atletico the lead, though Brugge’s leveller in the 39th, a curling long-range shot from the left wing by Arnaut “Danjuma” Groeneveld was the standout goal before Koke made the points safe in stoppage time.
“I said it last season and I’ll say it again -- Griezmann is the best player in the world,” said Atletico coach Diego Simeone.
Borussia Dortmund lead Atletico at the top of Group ‘A’ on goal difference following their 3-0 defeat of a struggling AS Monaco outfit.
Jacob Bruun Larsen broke the deadlock in Germany shortly after his introduction as a half-time substitute, with Paco Alcacer finding the net just minutes after smacking a penalty against the bar.
Marco Reus fired in a third from a Bruun Larsen cross, leaving Dortmund and Atletico on six points apiece ahead of their upcoming home-and-away meetings.
In Group ‘D’, American international midfielder Weston McKennie picked a good time to score his first goal for Schalke 04, an 88th-minute header to give the German club a 1-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow.
The 20-year-old leapt unmarked at the far post to connect with Yevhen Konoplyanka’s corner. It spoiled the Russian title holders’ first home Champions League game since 2003.
FC Porto are joint-top with Schalke on four points following a 1-0 win over Galatasaray courtesy of Moussa Marega’s 49th-minute goal in Portugal.
Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018
