WATCH: Dominant Messi Leads Barcelona by Chelsea to UCL Quarterfinals
The final place in the Champions League quarterfinals belongs to Barcelona.
Barcelona entered the second leg of their last-16 series with a slight, away goals advantage after Lionel Messi's heroics in the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Willian had given Chelsea control and the lead, but Messi's goal–his first against Chelsea in his career–gave Barcelona a favorable 1-1 scoreline heading into the return contest. Messi dominated the second leg with two goals and an assist, though, blowing the tie open in favor of the Catalan side, which advanced on a 4-1 aggregate after a 3-0 second-leg win.
Barcelona joins Real Madrid, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Sevilla and Roma in the competition's final eight.
While Messi was clutch late in London, he wasted little time in making an impact on Wednesday. He played a deflected combination with Luis Suarez in making a run to the near post and nutmegged Thibaut Courtois to beat him by that post at a tight angle to give Barcelona a 2-1 aggregate lead in the third minute. At two minutes and eight seconds, it was the quickest goal of Messi's career for club and country, according to Opta, and the 99th of his Champions League career.
Messi turned provider for Barcelona's second. After Samuel Umtiti made a vital block in defense, Barcelona sprung forward on the counter, with Messi turning Cesar Azpilicueta inside out. He sent a pass over to his right to Ousmane Dembele, who put a right-footed blast by Courtois to make it 3-1 Barcelona on aggregate and 2-0 on the day. The goal was the first for Dembele in a Barcelona shirt after a frustrating season beset by injuries.
Chelsea nearly got itself a lifeline just before halftime, when the visitors drew a free kick 20 yards out. Marcos Alonso stepped up to take it and was inches from connecting, instead having it hit off the outside of the post with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen beaten.
On the other end, Courtois nearly had a nightmare start to the second half. His careless giveaway gifted Luis Suarez a chance from just inside the box, only for the Belgian goalkeeper to recover in time to make the kick save needed to keep Chelsea within two goals.
On the ensuing sequence forward for Chelsea, Alonso looked to be clear in on goal, only for Dembele of all players to track back and make a potentially goal-saving tackle as Alonso was going into his shooting motion.
The action continued to pick up for Chelsea moments later, when it appeared Alonso was through the Barcelona defense in the center of the box and in on goal only to be taken down by Gerard Pique. No penalty was given, though, leading to an incensed group of Chelsea players waving furiously at referee Damir Skomina.
After Chelsea continued to threaten, Messi took the wind out of its sails with a mirror-image goal to his opener. Luis Suarez played a short pass to the Argentine, who blew by his defenders and beat Courtois from the left with another tight-angled finish for the 100th Champions League goal of his career. That made it 3-0 on the day and 4-1 on aggregate in the 63rd minute, all but ending Chelsea's hopes.
Messi, who has been vicious on set pieces this season, had an attempt at a hat trick saved by Courtois on a deflected free kick in the 79th minute, with the result well in hand.
Chelsea nearly secured a consolation goal in the dying minutes, but Antonio Rudiger hit the crossbar with a header. Combined with Willian's two shots off the post in the first leg and Alonso's in the second, Chelsea is left wondering what may have been, while Barcelona is off to another quarterfinal.
Here were the lineups for both teams:
The draw for the quarterfinal round will be held on Friday, with no restrictions placed on which teams can be drawn together.
