In the first meeting between the two teams in Champions League 2015-16, Roma and Barcelona played 1-1 in Italy. Before the second match, Barcelona was at the top of group E at 10 points before Roma at 5 points. Barcelona were strengthened by their victory in this weekend’s El Clásico. Roma have had their up and downs this season, with a great offense, but questionable defensive play. A tied game would mean that Barcelona would win the group. A win for Roma would give the Italians a theoretical chance to win group E.
Messi, Suárez, Neymar
Lionel Messi, who has been suffering from a knee injury this season, played for Barcelona from the start. He was into the action immediately with a couple of scoring chances the first 10 minutes. Barcelona got the ball behind Roma’s defenses time after time. After 15 minutes of play, Daniel Alves could serve Luis Suárez for 1-0. Roma kept playing with a high defensive line and no defenses at the sides. In fact, they looked uninterested in defending at all. Two minutes after the first goal, Lionel Messi scored the second. After some beautiful plays he made no mistake, increasing Barcelona’s lead to 2-0. After 35 minutes of play Barcelona had a ball possession advantage of 73%-27%. Roma kept playing defensively sloppy, without aggressiveness on the midfield. Shortly before the break, Suárez scores his second goal of the game with a nice shot. Two goals tonight, two goals in El Clásico and five goals in five matches is his current record. His suspension from the national team is over so he can once again play for Uruguay.
Most of Barcelona’s offense was created through the three superstars Messi, Suárez and Neymar. They kept playing the ball in the second half. Roma got a good chance in the beginning of the second half but Marc-André ter Stegen made the save. A couple of minutes later, Messi served Gerard Piqué for 4-0. Lionel Messi also did his second goal of the match in the 59th minute. The goal was another result of the cooperation between the three amigos. However, Neymar still had no goal. He sure had his chances in the second half. His best chance was at a penalty shot in the 75th minute. Wojciech Szczęsny saved though, but another Brazilian player, Adriano Correia, scored on the rebound, making it 6-0.
Roma also got a penalty, in the 81st minute, but Edin Dzeko failed to convert on it. He got a comfort goal in the last kick of the game though, making the final score 6-1 in favor of Barcelona who are now at the lead in La Liga and is ready for round of 16 in Champions League.
Other results:
Bate Borisov 1-1 Leverkusen
Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Bayern Munich 4-0 Olympiakos
Porto 0-2 Dynamo Kiev
Tel Aviv 0-4 Chelsea
FC Zenit 2-0 Valencia
Lyon 1-2 Gent
