Arsenal 0-2 Barcelona: Five Talking Points

Arsenal face an uphill task at the Camp NouVisitors Barcelona defeated Arsenal 0-2 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash at the Emirates. In what was a scintillating encounter, the Gunners were undone by the dazzling attacking trio of the mighty Catalans.Both teams had their chances but not one went in until Lionel Messi broke the deadlock in the 71st minute. The goal came from a brilliant counter-attack in which Luis Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi all played their part. Only 12 minutes later, Arsenal substitute Mathieu Flamini ended up fouling Messi inside the box and the referee awarded a spot-kick to the visitors. Messi took it and immediately doubled the lead. Here are the talking points from the game at the Emirates:

#1 Messi makes the difference

Once again, it was none other than the Argentine magician who made the difference. Lionel Messi stepped up when his team needed him the most and proved to be the kryptonite to Arsenal's defence yet once again, as he has been on many occasions in the past. He scored two goals in quick succession to help Barcelona go into the second leg with a massive advantage.

With many chances having been wasted by both sides, the game seemed to be going into a deadlock when the Messi delivered the finishing blow from a well-orchestrated counter-attack by the Catalans. This goal also meant that Messi finally has a goal past Petr Cech! Only a few minutes later he was fouled in the box and stepped up to take the awarded spot-kick.

Despite having had problems with converting penalties in the last few months, he tucked this one in confidently, proving himself to be the final nail in the coffin for the London side.

#2 Ter Stegen rises to the occasion

There has been a lot of criticism of Marc-Andre ter Stegen lately. The young German proved all of it baseless with his amazing performance to shut down the Arsenal attack. Arsenal managed to get quite a few chances over the course of the game, most of which should have gone through had it not been for Ter Stegen between the posts. While he didn't have to make that many saves, the ones he did pull were of the highest quality.

This should come as a breather for the youngster, whose form had been in question since the onset of the season. After the dream run he had last season, it was only a matter of time before he regained his confidence. This is certainly a good sign for Barcelona as the fans and the team have a renewed faith in the German keeper and know that they can rely on him to keep the goal safe.

#3 Messi scores past Cech

The talk of the night was Lionel Messi finally getting one past Petr Cech. The former Chelsea shot-stopper has had a notorious reputation of stopping Leo Messi from scoring past him. Messi had tried but had never managed to get even a single goal, even a penalty for that matter, past the Czech goalkeeper in his time at Chelsea despite having faced him six times.

The Argentine finally broke this draught, and he did so in a fashionable manner. He scored not one, but two goals past the man who has been a nightmare for him over the years. While the second goal was nothing more than a penalty kick, the first one was nothing short of spectacular. The Barcelona attacking trio combined to score that one with Suarez passing over the ball to Neymar who then passed it over to Messi, who took it with a wonderful first touch and finished it smoothly, curling it past Petr Cech.

#4 Squandered chances

The Arsenal forwards had many chances to take the lead early on, but they just couldn’t manage to grab on to one. Most of the chances ended up being sent wide or straight into the hands of Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

This has been the story for the Gunners of late, with them having scored only six goals in the last eight games they have played. Manager Arsene Wenger certainly needs to take care of this because they will have to score a lot past Barcelona at the Camp Nou to get to the next round.

There were squandered chances on the other end too, with Suarez missing out on quite a few. Barcelona’s top scorer this season hit the post and send some easy ones wide. Unlike Arsenal though, Barcelona were not affected much by these as they ended up getting two crucial away goals.

#5 Uphill task for Arsenal

Wenger will have a tough task on his hands

The tie seems to be all but over. Arsenal face an uphill, almost an impossible task when they visit Barcelona in three weeks’ time. Having lost 0-2 at home, the chances of them winning this tie are very slim. The two away goals grabbed by Barcelona have put the Catalans in more than a comfortable position going into the second leg.

Barcelona have been in great form, giving mesmerising performance week in and week out. They are 33 games unbeaten now, and beating them at the Camp Nou has always been a Herculean task. Arsenal, on the other hand, have been struggling with scoring goals lately. Looking at the facts, the picture draws itself.

If the Gunners are to achieve the almost impossible task of getting to the quarterfinals, they will need nothing short of a miracle in itself.