Barca seals Plzen’s fate with 4 goals

Current Champions League winners Barcelona sealed their place in the knockout stages of the tournament after cruising past 10-man Czech champions Viktoria Plzen 4-0 on Tuesday evening.Messi has scored 202 goals now for Barcelona and coach Pep Guardiola reached 200 games as Barca’s manager.

Another 3 goals by Argentine Lionel Messi and one by ex Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas were enough to see off the Champions League new boys.
Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes also set a new club record of 877 minutes without conceding a goal.

Messi struck first by converting a penalty then added a second just before halftime and completed his second hat-trick in four days in the final minutes of injury time. Cesc Fabregas added his goal in the 72nd minute from a header.

Guardiola’s men are top of Group H with 10 points from four games, two points ahead of AC Milan who also got through to the next round despite a 1-1 draw with Belarusian side BATE Borisov.

Messi’s first goal came from a penalty, which he converted with a low shot in the 24th minute after being brought down in the area by Plzen sweeper Marian Cisovsky, who was shown the red card for his efforts. This drastically changed the game for Plzen who were holding Barcelona off before the penalty incident. Now, down to ten men Plzen would have to come up with something special to stop a Barca onslaught of goals.
Before the halftime whistle, Adriano had a nice interchange with Leo Messi to set the Argentinian up for a crisp left footed shot from inside the box that left Plzen keeper Roman Pavlik scrambling.

Cesc Fabregas then made it 3-0 with a close-range header after a cross from Barca new boy Isaac Cuenca, who scored his first goal for the current league champions the other day against Mallorca.

The Catalans, who beat Plzen 2-0 at the Nou Camp two weeks ago, started with Thiago and Adriano in midfield while Iniesta and Xavi were left on the bench and David Villa was rested.
Plzen, playing in Prague as their own stadium is not up to UEFA requirements, showed a more resilient approach to their one at the Nou Camp.

Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes denied Plzen winger Milan Petrzela after a superlative run and midfielder Daniel Kolar sent his shot screaming over the bar. Thus Valdés kept another clean sheet and added to his formidable record.
Barcelona then took the bull by its horns and seized control, only for Pavlik to deny the little Argentine 3 times. As the second half marched on,Plzen created just a single scoring chance as Petrzela hit a crisp low volley which went slightly wide of Valdes’ goal.
Barca’s Dani Alves will miss the game against AC Milan after seeing a yellow card and the Plzen’s Pilar will also miss next game.

About Barca Blogger

My name's Steve aka Barca Blogger and one of the founding members of the team at Barcelonafcblog.com. I've been around since the blog started and we aim to bring you the most up to date information on this great club.

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    Valora en Bitacoras.com: Current Champions League winners Barcelona sealed their place in the knockout stages of the tournament after cruising past 10-man Czech champions Viktoria Plzen 4-0 on Tuesday evening.Messi has scored 202 goals now for Barcel…..