BARCELONA: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi shoots to score during the match against Manchester United at the Camp Nou Stadium.—AFP
“Ajax deserved to qualify,” said Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri. “We could have done better, but Ajax aren’t coming out of nowhere, they were Europa League finalists two years ago and scored five goals against Real.
“It’s not our worst elimination. We had big expectations, but the Champions League is a strange competition. You have to arrive in peak condition. In the last month we have been struggling with several injuries. Even tonight we were missing important players.”
Messi had failed to score in his last 12 quarter-final appearances, but he settled his side’s nerves after a bright start from United, collecting a misplaced pass from Ashley Young and curling into the bottom corner in the 16th minute.
The Argentine then pounced on another lapse from United’s defence four minutes later to win back possession high up the pitch and fire a shot from outside the box, which squirmed under visiting keeper David de Gea.
Coutinho finished off a therapeutic win for the Catalans, after three quarter-final failures in a row, by curling into the top corner in the 61st. Barca will meet either Porto or Liverpool in the last four.
“This was a spectacular performance, this is what we are all about,” Messi told reporters. “The first five minutes we were a little shy and nervous, perhaps the scoreline gave us a strange feeling, but then we took control of the game.”
United had arrived at Camp Nou hoping to take inspiration from its Champions League final victory twenty years ago, when current manager Solskjaer capped a comeback against Bayern Munich by scoring the winner in injury time.
But Messi showed that past glories mean very little when he is playing at his best.
After not managing a single shot on target at Old Trafford in the first leg, United looked a lot more dangerous going forward at the start. But after Marcus Rashford hit the crossbar, Messi took over with his tournament-leading ninth and 10th goals of the season.
“Messi and Cristiano [Ronaldo] have been the best players in the world for the past decade,” Solskjaer said. “And he showed why we think that and why he has won so many titles. If you give him space and timing around the goal he will create chances and score.”
Messi now has his 109th and 110th Champions League goals and, potentially, three extra matches to reduce the gap on Ronaldo’s 126.
The Barcelona crowd, which for so long viewed Ronaldo as its main nemesis when he was with Real, celebrated the Ajax goals when they were announced on the video monitor.
Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2019