Lionel Messi’s masterclass gives Barcelona win over Tottenham

For Tottenham, it was a harsh lesson in the realities of the Champions League at the highest level. Incredibly, they might actually have saved themselves before Barcelona scored their fourth goal in the final exchanges. The idea, however, that Spurs could have escaped with a draw felt almost bewildering bearing in mind the long passages when Barça bewitched Wembley and a chap by the name of Lionel Messi seemed utterly determined to leave the impression that, in 136 years of football, Spurs had never encountered a single man with his powers.

It certainly wasn’t an easy game to work out if you consider the periods of Messi-inspired dominance for Barça and the various points, at 2-0 and 3-1, when it would not have been a surprise for it to finish as a rout. Instead, Mauricio Pochettino’s team were emboldened by the goals from Harry Kane and Érik Lamela and there was a late onslaught of the visitors’ goal before Messi settled it in the 89th minute. Barca were both brilliant and vulnerable. But the Catalans were so superior overall that nobody could possibly argue the victory was undeserved. It was just a surprise, if anything, they restricted themselves to only four goals.

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