Barcelona Crash out of Champions League

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, Sports News Wednesday, April 19th, 2017

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Barcelona’s hopes of staging another sensational Champions League comeback fell flat against a hardened Juventus side who held the Catalans to a 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals 3-0 on aggregate.

The Italian champions barely gave Barca a glimmer of hope of repeating their historic turnaround against Paris St Germain in the last 16 and protected their healthy advantage from the first leg by starving the hosts of space and clear sights of goal.

Lionel Messi came closest to giving Barca a route back into the contest with four strikes at goal but failed to hit the target with any of them and frequently came up short against Juve’s intimidating centre-back pairing of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.

“Juventus are a great team and they were better than us in the tie and overall they deserved to go through. I wish them the best and I think they could win the trophy,” Barca defender Gerard Pique told reporters.