Lionel Messi has done it once again.
The Barcelona legend scored a goal for the highlight when his club needed it most, eluded multiple Napoli defenders and topped Barcelona’s lead in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16.
Barcelona led 1-0 on the day and 2-1 overall on a somewhat controversial goal, after Clement Lenglet appeared to move to give a corner kick home.
However, there was nothing controversial about Messi’s finish. The Argentine maestro split a few defenders, shook another, was hit in the box, regained his balance and then crawled a shot from the left with his feet inside the far post when he went to the ground again.
The goal made it 3-1 for Barcelona overall. He showed that he made it 4-1 in a more conventional way in the 30th minute, with a beautiful outside of Frenkie de Jong’s belly at the edge of the six-yard box and the ball on the onrushing David Ospina. It was taken down by VAR for an apparent handball when he took the ball down, although he left him on 115 goals on the stage of the Champions League in his career.
Messi deserved the chance for Barcelona to return to the scoring just before half-time, after a lengthy process of review. He chased Kalidou Koulibaly from behind and cut for him inside the Napoli box, where defender Messi rode his leg from behind as he tried to win the ball back. Messi went down for a long time while feeling the effects of the kick, and after the referee checked the pitch and handed out the penalty, Luis Suarez stepped up to the spot and converted, making it 3-0 on the day and 4- 1 on aggregate.
Napoli drew the day within 3-1 and 4-2 in total on their own penalty, after an Ivan Rakitic foul Lorenzo Insigne was able to score from the spot.
If Barcelona continue, it will advance to the quarter-finals in Portugal, where it will likely face Bayern Munich, who have a commanding last 16 lead over Chelsea.
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