Messi's brilliance lifts Barcelona to improbable Champions League comeback

by Martin Rogers  

 Lionel Messi produced one of the most dazzling displays of his career to lead Barcelona to a stirring Champions League comeback against AC Milan on Tuesday and created a slice of tournament history along the way.

Picking a favorite from Messi's seemingly endless feats of brilliance, which seem to happen on a weekly basis, is a fool's errand, yet there is little doubt that the importance of this contest gives it extra weight.

Barca was facing elimination after a 2-0 defeat in the first leg of its round-of-16 clash against Italian giant AC Milan, a deficit from which no team had ever recovered in the Champions League's 21 seasons of existence. Yet, with a flick of his left cleat just five minutes into the contest, Messi sent his side on their way to an inspired 4-0 victory that kept alive the club's dream of adding to its modern dynasty of three European titles in the past six years.

Messi added a second goal just before halftime to suck the life out of Milan, and the one-way traffic continued after the break. David Villa put Barca ahead on aggregate after 56 minutes, before Jordi Alba added a fourth in the dying moments.

Messi has occasionally struggled for the Argentina national team, but his efforts for his club side have been virtually flawless. Yet, if there was one knock on him before it was that he had often struggled to produce his brilliant best against Italian teams and their steely defensive structure. In eight previous Champions League games against Italian opposition, Messi had only scored three times, all of them from penalty kicks, leading some over-confident Milan supporters to proclaim their team had his measure from open play.

But on this night, the little Argentinean with the magic feet showed the folly of that belief – and in the theory that there could be another player on the planet to match him, despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s superb season for Real Madrid.

Ronaldo rose to the top of one arbitrary media poll this week as the world's best player, but for all his explosive excellence he remains a shade behind Messi, no question about it, mainly because the Barcelona man does things that no other players would think of, let alone execute.

For his first goal on Tuesday he was surrounded, mobbed by a posse of five Milan defenders, but it mattered not. One perfect touch drew two men away, a nudge of the ball creating the tiniest fraction of space, and that was all he needed.

A split second later the ball was in the back of the net, all before goalkeeper Christian Abbiati had any idea what was going on.

The second was a different goal but a similar story. Messi's left foot was responsible again, firing home from the edge of the penalty area as the Milan defense was once more left powerless.

A few moments earlier, M'baye Niang had Milan's best chance of the night when he charged clear on goal but struck his effort against the post. However, even if the visitors had re-established their two-goal advantage, it would have been hard to imagine them staving off the Barca juggernaut.

On this evidence it would take either bravery or foolhardiness to bet against Barca regaining its Champions League crown, and its fiercest challenge may come in the form of hated Spanish rival Madrid, and their talisman Ronaldo.

Yet Barca seems to be in the mindset of quieting the doubters right now, just like Messi is himself.

The Spanish league title is pretty much in the books for Barca and another Champions League crown would surely lead to a fifth straight world player of the year award for Messi.

With each fresh display of excellence, it becomes harder to think of what Messi could possibly do for an encore, though Barcelona will happily settle for more of the same.

Could Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola be after the same jobs?

By Andy Brassell European football expert

 Pep Guardiola's departure from Barcelona at the end of last season wasn't just the end of his involvement in a glorious era for the club. It also called time on one of the most fascinating managerial rivalries in Spanish - and world - football, between Guardiola and Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho.

It appears increasingly likely that Mourinho will also be a former La Liga boss by next summer. Monday's edition of Madrid-based newspaper Marca claimed the coach and his president Florentino Perez have mutually agreed that he will leave at the end of June 2013, with just the terms of the settlement to be decided.

Speculation on Mourinho's future in the Spanish capital stretches back for almost two years, but there is weight to this. Marca is strongly pro-Real Madrid and pro-Perez, and often acts as an unofficial conduit for the president's thoughts.

The current situation is, frankly, a pain for Perez. His relationship with Mourinho has always been cordial rather than affectionate, but he brought the Portuguese to the Bernabeu for one reason - to win the Champions League.

The problem is that Real's patchy domestic form has left them in third place in La Liga, 11 points behind Barcelona. This is despite Saturday's convincing derby win over second-placed Atletico.

Real finished second behind Borussia Dortmund in Champions League Group D and there is now a two-month hiatus before the knockout stages begin. Perez needs the club to remain competitive at home in the meantime if Mourinho is to remain to work his magic in Europe.

But whether or not Real end up winning May's final at Wembley, the timing could be right for Mourinho to move on. He will have completed three years in Madrid, which has tended to be his maximum at one club.

It is longer than most expected him to last. He has survived despite frequent rows with the media and persistent rumours of a schism between Spanish and foreign players in the camp.

Were he to leave, there are very few clubs in world football who could realistically hope to attract a coach of such renown. How his future will unfold is, however, complicated by his old sparring partner Guardiola.

Two aspects of Guardiola's status potentially muddle things in terms of Mourinho's immediate future. Firstly, the ex-Barcelona coach is a free agent, so there is no need to negotiate exit terms, as Mourinho would have to should he leave Madrid.

Secondly, the competition for Guardiola's signature is so fierce that it is hard to imagine any enamoured club waiting until the completion of his current sabbatical year with his family in New York to make a move. They may even fire a coach earlier than anticipated to create a vacancy.

One club where this could well happen is Paris Saint-Germain. Since his arrival in France last December, former Chelsea and AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti has failed to either capture silverware or produce any real quality, despite an outlay of around £120m on transfer fees alone.

Following Tuesday's Champions League win over Porto,  which saw Ancelotti's side top their group, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi backed his man in the most non-committal way possible. "Today, Carlo is here," he told reporters on his way out of the Parc des Princes.

With his team on a run of three defeats in their last five league games, Al-Khelaifi's reticence is unsurprising. Monday's L'Equipe carried the headline "Qatar wants a big clean-up", claiming the club's Middle East owners are already planning a future without the Italian.

Further down, the newspaper said PSG representatives had already entered into discussions with Guardiola's entourage. It's hard to imagine star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic would be too pleased after his disparaging comments about Guardiola in his autobiography last year.

PSG's Swedish star would be rather more cheered by the arrival of Mourinho, whom he named as his favourite coach, along with Fabio Capello, in his book. Mourinho already knows Al-Khelaifi on a personal level, having worked as a pundit for his Al-Jazeera Sport channel at Euro 2012.

Mourinho has won national titles in four countries already. The possibility of doing so in a fifth is something that could appeal to his well-developed sense of history.

But it is not only the PSG job that both Mourinho and Guardiola are being linked with. Manchester City's Roberto Mancini was recently forced to respond to reports that the Real boss's agent, Jorge Mendes, had met with Manchester City's sporting director Txiki Begiristain.

It is unlikely to be the last time Mancini has to do so. The fact Mourinho turned Mancini's domestic success and European failure at Inter Milan into a Champions League win has escaped nobody's notice.

Still, the suspicion is that Begiristain might have his sights trained elsewhere. It was he who chose Guardiola ahead of Mourinho for the Barcelona post back in 2008.

Wednesday's edition of Catalan Daily Sport again invoked the link between the pair. Sport claimed Begiristain "will clean up City to prepare for the arrival of Guardiola", suggesting he will slash the wage bill and reduce the size of the squad. This would leave Guardiola closer to the tight group dynamic he favoured at the Camp Nou.

Meanwhile, the difficulties being experienced by Rafael Benitez at Chelsea mean the prospect of Mourinho returning to Stamford Bridge is not off the table.

The possibility that when Mourinho and Guardiola eventually resume hostilities it will be in the Premier League is certainly an intriguing one.