Barcelona 3-0 Bayern Munich
Lionel Messi scores 2 goals to give Barcelona a very crucial win against Bayern Munich in the Semi-Finals of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday night. Since this match was the 1st leg of the semis, winning this game means that Barcelona will qualify to the Final if they draw the 2nd leg, which will be held this week.
The 2 FCBs- FC Bayern (Munich) and FC Barcelona, faced off at the Camp Nou (Barcelona’s home ground) on Wednesday night. Barcelona won 3-0 and the first 2 goals were scored by none other than the Argentinian magician, Lionel Messi. The third goal was scored by his South American counterpart, the Brazilian Neymar.
Barcelona dominated the whole game, creating chances after chances but without success. But then the breakthrough came in the 77th minute. After a defencive mistake by Bayern, the ball came to Messi’s feet, who took the ball and made a powerful shot from outside the d-box that blew past the Bayern goalkeeper’s outstretched hands and into the back of the net.
A few minutes later, another defencive mistake caused the ball to fall onto Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitić’s feet, who passed it to Messi. And Messi did the rest. He dribbled past defender Dante, before chipping the ball over the head of the world’s best goalkeeper.
By scoring these 2 goals, Messi showed why we should consider him the world’s best footballer. With such a strong defence, and the world’s best goalkeeper, scoring a goal against Bayern looked impossible. But then Messi showed that to beat the impossible, you need to become the impossible.
In the 95th minute, Barcelona launched a counterattack, and the ball was passed to Neymar. Neymar then took the ball and sprinted forward. He had only one defender on his heels, and the goalkeeper before him. On a 1-on-1 situation with goalkeeper Neuer, he shot the ball past Neuer’s legs and into the back of the net. 3-0.
This was the 1st leg of the Semi-Finals, held at Camp Nou. The 2nd leg will be held next Tuesday at Bayern’s home ground, The Allianz Arena.
Juventus 2-1 Real Madrid
On the previous night, Tuesday, Juventus shocked fans by beating Real Madrid 2-1 at their home ground, Juventus Stadium. Alvaro Morata and Carlos Tevez were the scorers for Juventus while Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his 54th goal of the season for Real Madrid.
Juventus was the stronger side, creating more chances, and making more shots on target. Carlos Tevez’s shot was blocked by the Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, but the ball then came to striker Alvaro Morata’s feet, who rebounded the ball to give Juve the 1-0 lead.
Ronaldo equalled the score for Real Madrid at 1-1 in the 27th minute. After midfielder James Rodríguez dribbled past a Juventus defender, he made an overhead pass towards Ronaldo, who scored by heading the ball into the net.
The winning goal came in the 58th minute from a penalty kick. Juventus striker Carlos Tevez was fouled by a Madrid defender inside the d-box, and therefore a penalty was awarded to Juventus. Tevez then took the penalty and scored. Juventus now lead 2-1 and the score remained unchanged till the end of the match.
The 2nd leg of this Semi-Final fixture will be held next Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Real Madrid’s home ground.