Messi’s goals were his first past Petr Cech and, after famously missing a penalty in the 2012 Champions League semi-final, they included a spot-kick against the former Chelsea goalkeeper. “We’ve missed a few this season, but that’s because goalkeepers are doing their homework on us,” said Messi.
Uefa have confirmed that will take no action against Pique over the accusation he got himself deliberately booked with a late tackle on Danny Welbeck.
The incident happened after Pique and manager Luis Enrique were talking on the touchline and there is a theory – denied by Pique and Enrique – that Barcelona are now so confident that they wanted their defender to have no bookings hanging over him ahead of a probable quarter-final.
"It was not deliberate, anyone who saw the foul knows it,” said Enrique. In principle, disciplinary action and an extended ban could be imposed on any player who, on the basis of reports by the referee or a match delegate, is judged to have got purposefully booked. BT Sport pundits Ian Wright and Ronald Koeman both thought that it was deliberate.
“He's [Enrique] not going to come out and say he told his players to get a yellow card,” said Wright. Koeman, a former Barcelona defender, said: “For sure he took it. It's not a tackle that you do at 2-0 up.”
Arsenal vs Barcelona timeline February 23 2016
- Telegraph