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Sanchez helps Barca advance in CL

Comment: 0 February 15th, 2012 by: admin

Barcelona forward in the Champions League as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Tuesday at the BayArena in the first leg of their last-16 match.

A brace by Alexis Sanchez, followed by a late goal by Lionel Messi, handed Barca the road victory against the German outfit whose lone goal was scored by defender Michal Kadlec.

The Spanish giants and current holders of the Champions League title completely dominated the match in possessions, earning them massive advantage for the second leg at Camp Nou.  The victory secures the Catalans their sixth straight win in the Champions League, and stretches their unbeaten record to 13.

The first of Barca’s goals came in the waning minutes of the first half, when Messi flicked the ball to the right channel before Sanchez found it to score in the 41^st minute.

Leverkusen came back with an equaliser early in the second half as Kadlec heads the ball past Sanchez, awarding the home squad a 1-1 relief at the 52^nd.

The stalemate would not last long, however, as about 3 minutes later a Cesc Fabregas pass would find Sanchez, who rocketed the ball past Bernd Leno for his second goal.

With Leverkusen finding no answer to Barcelona, the visitors finished off the home squad when Lionel Messi intercepted a Dani Alves pass and dart over 20 yards to slide the ball into the goal in the 88^th minute.  This would give him his 45^th Champions League goal – the most of any South American.

Reflecting on the match, Barca manager Pep Guardiola admitted that although the victory was something to celebrate, there were some improvements that could have been made early on in the match.

“We had a few chances in the first half, but perhaps the final pass was missing,” Guardiola told the press.

He then agreed that the performance in the second half was something to be proud of.

“I think the second half was good, we used the space better after we took the lead.

“We tried to improve our game.  But we were playing away and we came into the game after the break.”

He then acknowledged the challenge of overcoming German opponents, stating that their physicality is a potential problem.

“When you play against the German teams then you don’t have the control, you don’t have the possession and you receive a lot of problems because they are physically stronger and they are a very good team,” he said.

“In the second half we played a game which wasn’t very interesting for us, but we’re still happy to score three goals away from home.”

The Catalans will try to finish off Leverkusen as hosts on 7 March.  Meanwhile, they travel back home to face Valencia in a La Liga match.

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