Magical Messi catapults Barcelona towards final

Lionel Messi proved his former coach Pep Guardiola right with two goals which saw FC Barcelona take a massive stride towards the Champions League final in Berlin with a 3-0 win at home against German football club Bayern Munich here.

Guardiola, who now coaches Bayern and made his return to his former home ground on Wednesday, had said that it was impossible to stop Messi.

Unfortunately for Bayern and fortunately for Barcelona he was proven right, although everyone had to wait until the 78th minute for the first goal of a fascinating and exciting game before Messi struck with a left foot shot from outside the penalty area after having been given too much room by the Bayern defence, reports Xinhua.

The Argentinean had said on Tuesday that he had not spoken to Guardiola in the three years since the Bayern coach had left the club and he is unlikely to receiving calls from Pep after a magical second goal three minutes later.

He collected the ball outside the Bayern area on Wednesday night, turned Boeteng inside out and then chipped the ball over Manuel Neuer to send Camp Nou into ecstasy.

There was even better to come for Barcelona when Neymar sprinted through the Bayern defence in the last minute of injury time to run onto a Messi pass and slide the ball under the Bayern keeper.

It was a dramatic end to a game between two sides who had looked so evenly matched for much of the encounter which at times resembled a frantic game of chess and in which, for once Barcelona faced a rival who had more of the ball than they did.

However, Bayern failed to hit one shot on target while Manuel Neuer produced one outstanding first half save to deny Luis Suarez. Then Messi took centre stage to prove his former coach right, although Guardiola for once would rather have got it wrong.