‘Hug a Chelsea fan & prevent suicide’…Fans react to Messi’s magic against Chelsea

Israel Igiri

Lionel Messi scored his 100th Champions League goal as Barcelona knocked Chelsea out of the competition with a 3-0 victory, giving the Catalans a 4-1 aggregate win at the Nou Camp.

The Argentine was the standout performer, hitting a brace either side of Ousmane Dembele’s first strike for the club as Ernesto Valverde’s side comfortably saw of their English visitors.

With the game evenly poised after the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge on February 20, it was a tie that was up for the taken by any side who wanted it most, and that Barcelona showed as Messi scored the earliest goal of his professional career in the third minute. It seemed Chelsea had cleared the initial danger when Messi tried a one-two with Dembele, but the ball broke to Luis Suarez, who freed Messi near the byline on the right and his low shot from a tight angle went through the legs of Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea’s response was encouraging with Eden Hazard and Willian making great runs and pilling pressure on the Barcelona defence, but ex-Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas left his team-mates with a tall mountain to climb as his mistake proved costly in the buildup to Barcelona’s second goal.

Messi dispossessed Fabregas off the ball on halfway and then glided past a wild challenge from Andreas Christensen and skipped away from Marcos Alonso before picking out Dembele in space and the French man took a touch before firing the ball past Courtois into the roof of the net to open his goal scoring account for his new club on the 20th minute.

Once again, the West London side responded well and they had their moments as the first half drew to a close. Marc-Andre Ter Stegen palmed Alonso’s strike away before N’Golo Kante dragged a shot wide of the post. And in the final minute of the first half, they went close to pulling one back when Olivier Giroud was fouled on the edge of the box by Samuel Umtiti and Alonso’s free-kick hit the outside of the post with Ter Stegen beaten.

Early in the second half, Courtois gifted Suarez a chance of scoring his first Champions League goal of the season when his loose pass out of his own area was picked off by the Uruguayan but the keeper recovered to block his shot.

Few minutes later, Alonso then went down in the area under pressure from Gerard Pique after Willian had played him in, but the referee waved away the penalty appeals causing a furious protest from Giroud, which saw him booked.

Chelsea continued to put Barcelona under pressure as the game approached the hour mark, with Pique making a brave block as Alonso blasted the ball in from the left of the area. And within seconds of his intervention, the home side wrapped up the tie.

Barcelona broke on the counter and Suarez fed Messi, who raced into the area, easing around the outside of Cesar Azpilicueta, and sending another angled shot whistling through Courtois’ legs again for his 100th Champions League goal.

Antonio Rudiger hit the bar with a header late on but a consolation goal was not to be as the Spanish giants made it to the quarter finals of the competition for a record 11th time.

Following the result, the world of Twitter was on fire with fans making funny and crazy comments. Let’s take a look at some of them

@MCFCTone 3h

I repeat FT Barcelona 3 Chelsea 0 Well! Chelsea went to pay homage to Messi’s new born baby.

#Barcelona #Barca #BARCHE

#BarcaChelsea live #Chelsea #UCL

#ChampionsLeague 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂😂😂😂 Messi🐐 ⚽⚽ Dembele ⚽

@ilMessi10i

Chelsea’s biggest mistake was wearing white kits, making Messi think he was playing Real Madrid

@TweeteractiveNG

Chelsea fans before the match: Anything can happen in football, we can beat Barcelona

@omoissy

Champions League WhatsApp group

Liverpool (online), Bayern (online), PSG (left), Madrid (online), Tottenham (left), Juventus (online), Man City (online), Man United (left), Arsenal (Last seen December 2016), Barcelona just removed Chelsea from chat)

@OlisaOsega

Messi has never scored Cech – He gave him two

Messi has never scored Buffon – He gave him two

Messi has never scored Chelsea – He gave them home and away

Who else is remaining?

Messi is on a different level walai

@akaebube

Courtois legs were as porous as Nigerian borders

You can’t stop this level of terrorism without paying attention to it.

@drizzyposh25

SAVE A LIFE!!

Hug a Chelsea fan & prevent suicide…