LONDON — Barcelona beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 in their UEFA Champions League Group B clash at Wembley on Wednesday, with Lionel Messi putting on a show at the home of soccer.
[ MORE: Messi’s masterclass a joy ]
After going 2-0 up Barcelona threatened to run away with things but goals from Harry Kane and Erik Lamela pulled it back to 2-1 and 3-2 before Messi finished off Spurs late on.
From Ivan Rakitic’s mind-boggling goal to Messi’s brilliance and the grit of Kane, this game had it all.
Here’s what we learned from a thrilling encounter at Wembley which will go down as a classic.
MESSI, KANE PUT ON A SHOW
Ahead of the game Harry Kane was ridiculed for saying he’d like to score more goals than Lionel Messi. Yes, Kane is still only 25 years old and has time on his side, but he will have his work cut out to get on Messi’s level.
Everybody who will play the game in the future will also be struggling to match him.
Messi scored twice at Wembley to cap off a fine individual display as he petrified Tottenham’s defense every time he dropped deep to pick the ball up and set off on yet another mesmeric run. He hit the post twice with near identical efforts at the start of the second half and it was one of those nights where the 31-year-old proved, once again, why he’s the best player on the planet.
He also loves to play against Premier League teams, as he’s scored more goals and provided more assists versus English teams than against teams from any other nation in European competitions.
🐐 Lionel Messi doing Lionel Messi things pic.twitter.com/JyKyyltbUq
— Joe Prince-Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) October 3, 2018
At the other end Kane tried his best without his usual support acts of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen (both injured) and he did an admirable job. He held the ball up, tracked back and ran around like a man possessed in the second half to try and get his team back in the game. What Messi had in skill, Kane matched in grit.
And, in case you are wondering, Messi has scored 562 goals in 647 games for Barcelona, with 105 in the Champions League. He has five goals in two UCL games this season, at a rate of one goal every 36 minutes. Kane has 146 for Spurs but has scored 10 goals in his 12 UCL appearances to date.
Still a long, long, long way to go for Kane, but Tottenham’s talisman stood tall on Wednesday. But unfortunately for him, so too did Barcelona’s.
RUTHLESS BARCELONA STILL HAVE ISSUES
In recent weeks there have been murmurs that Barcelona have been struggling after three games without a win in La Liga.
They were obviously saving themselves for this game. At least in terms of their attacking prowess.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho pressed Tottenham’s shaky back line early and they never stopped. The pressure was relentless and Barcelona’s finishing was ruthless. This looked like it would be a lesson in how you kill off a game as quickly as you can, then continue to force your opponent into awkward defensive situations.
Coutinho finished with poise after Hugo Lloris’ rush of blood to the head early on to sprint out for a ball he was never going to get to. Then Davinson Sanchez’s cheap giveaway led to Coutinho keeping the ball in play as Rakitic hammered home a stupendous volley which will live long in the memory. Messi twice hit the post after mesmerizing runs, then finished calmly for Barca’s third as that looked to be it.
🔥🔥🔥
— Joe Prince-Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) October 3, 2018
Ivan Rakitic's technique was 💯 for this incredible goal. Take a bow. Could watch this strike over and over and over. The way he kept it down...
Early on, Barcelona 2-0 up v Tottenham at Wembley #THFC #FCB #TOTBAR #UCL pic.twitter.com/jeLSau8wSI
But question marks do remain about their ability to seriously challenge for the Champions League title this season, despite making it two wins from two to open up group play.
The main area Barcelona can improve is defensively. Sure, they missed the pace and dominant aerial ability of the suspended Samuel Umtiti as Harry Kane in particular bullied their back line in the second half. Marc-Andre ter Stegen came up with a big save in the first half and, generally speaking, you can assume they’d still win plenty of games even if they conceded an average of one per game due to the prowess of their attack.
Messi and Co. have been written off by many already, and after going three years without winning the Champions League, they will have to clean up their defensive deficiencies to have a real chance of winning it all in Madrid in May.
TOTTENHAM’S INJURIES ERODE FLUIDITY
It is easy to blame Spurs’ haphazard display on having key players out injured, but there’s no doubt that had a huge impact on their fluidity at both ends of the pitch as they’ve started up their UCL group stage with defeats to Inter Milan and Barcelona.
They have a tough job to get out of the group now with both Barca and Inter having six points on the board.
Kane did his job, as he usually does, in holding the ball up and trying to bring others into play, but when he dropped deeper to lay balls off, neither Eriksen or Alli were there to link up with him. Heung-min Son, Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela were all looking for the ball in-behind and nobody was there to slot them in, even though Harry Winks put in a fine display to try and shut Barcelona down.
¡GOOOOOOOOLLLLL! Responden los Spurs y Harry Kane marca el descuento con una gran jugada individual que pone a bailar a la defensa.@Spurs_ES 1-2 @FCBarcelona_es
— TUDN USA (@TUDNUSA) October 3, 2018
Sigue toda la acción del #TOTBAR en UDN y 👉 https://t.co/ZQRiqH7Txd pic.twitter.com/XVk0HPDXSp
Losing Eriksen, Alli, Mousa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen through injury ahead of such a big night was a cruel blow for Pochettino. Yet, Spurs had chances and took two of them, and they showed real desire to try and drag themselves back into the game.
But the damage was done due to defensive errors from Lloris and Sanchez as they badly missed Vertonghen’s calming influence and Dembele’s presence in front of the back four.
Had Spurs had a fully fit squad to choose from, they could have nicked a point against Barcelona, or maybe even more.