Messi instills fear into opponents, says Valverde

Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde expressed that Lionel Messi instils fear amongst their opponents after they trounced Liverpool in the first leg of Champions League's semi-final.

"Through the way he plays and the way he gets close to their goal, he helped us play and win by a bigger margin - and he instills fear into our opponents," Goal quoted Valverde, as saying.

"I'd rather not think how he does it, to be honest, but he always shows up when we need him the most, this time just when we were in situations in which we had to shake Liverpool's domination off," he added.

Barcelona were already at a one-goal lead after the conclusion of the first half. However, in the second half, Messi's magic came into being and the Barcelona star struck two more goals which handed Liverpool a 3-0 defeat. Moreover, with these two goals, Messi touched the 600 goals milestone in club competition.

Valverde praised the 31-year old immensely saying that Messi surprises him with his performance.

"I just saw it [the free-kick] at pitch level, but the truth is, Leo's always surprising. It was very far out, we didn't know what he was going to do. In the end, I don't know how he does it, but he always does," Valverde said.

Barcelona has already won La Liga this season and reached in the finals of the Copa del Rey which is scheduled to take place on May 25 against Valencia.

Barcelona will now compete with Liverpool, for the second leg of Champions League's semi-final, at Anfield on May 8.