On the Wednesday night game of soccer between Barcelona and Manchester United, Lionel Messi first felt a thud on his back by arm of Chris Smalling. However, alter the flailing right arm of the United’s defender came swiping across Messi’s face and the aftermath was a bloodied nose of the Messi.
United, which was already trailing behind the Barca resorted to physicality after 30 minutes into the game in their efforts to defeat the 5-time European Champion.
However, after that only injury, there were no more injuries or goals made on the night.
This allowed Barcelona to win the first leg of the quarterfinal by 1-0. The only goal on the night was made after Luke Shaw; the defender of the United unknowingly helped the header from Barca’s Luis Suarez to go straight into the net at the 12th minute of the game.
The only goal by Barcelona was first flagged for being offside but was later awarded to the team after a video review.
Ernesto Valverde, the Barca coach said, “That was a great header from Luis as he was fighting for everyone. He was getting stuck in between the defenders and was trying really hard to make it through.”
Nelson Semedo, the Barca’s defender talking about the team’s sloppy performance despite winning the game said, “We lost the ball a few times in our own half. Still shutting down those errors handed us over victory.”
Although the champions of Spanish league ended their 6-game winless streak in the knockout games of European League, the quarterfinal is still in play as it heads into the 2nd leg of on the coming week’s Tuesday.
As for the quarterfinal match of the first leg between Ronaldo’s Juventus and Ajax, it ended in a 1-1 draw on Wednesday which was held in Amsterdam.
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