PBP: UEFA CL 1/8 2nd Leg | FC Barcelona v Bayer Leverkusen | 7 March 2012 [R]

From Guardian's coverage:
68 min "How crazy is it," says Karl Thomas Meakin, "that this Barça side almost certainly aren't going to win the league?" It's Jose Mourinho's greatest achievement, followed by centuries of daylight, followed by that treble with Inter and the titles with Chelsea. It's mind-blowing to think that Mourinho won the title by February against perhaps the greatest team of all time.



Personally I still think CL with Porto is up there.

another gem: 60 min "Messi is Maradona meets Gerd Muller," says Mike Gibbons. "200 in five seasons...sorry, 201 now."

still another:
GOAL! Barcelona 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Messi 50) I'm sorry, but this is just ridiculous. It's not remotely fair. Barcelona should be handicapped, made to play with nine men, when Lionel Messi is in their side. He Messi has scored his eighth hat-trick of the season – his eighth hat-trick of the season – and this might be the best goal of the three. Again he ran beyond the defence onto a through pass, this time from Busquets. His first touch on the edge of the area was exquisite, but the covering Schwaab seemed to have forced him a little wide. Then Messi produced a glorious chip with his weaker right foot that arced over the head of Leno and plopped gently into the far corner. The extent and the efficiency of his genius is totally beyond our comprehension.

Thank you for the stat digging. interesting stuff

Well, for a short while vs. Sporting we did play with 9 without Messi, and looked pretty good.

The real suspense of this match was which Leverkusen player would end up with Messi's shirt. So who was it??

FIVE GOALS

Get one more Mesis PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Messi has 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Booooooooom !!!

It's 5 for Messi !!

Via barcastuff: For the first time in his career, Lionel Messi scores 5 goals in a game #fcblive

GOAL! Barcelona 7-0 Bayer Leverkusen (Messi 85) Lionel Messi becomes the first man to score five goals in a Champions League match. It was another terrifyingly simple goal, passed into the corner at pace from the D. There's nothing left to say.

Oh dear. I thought they had taken their foot off the gas pedal. Do games ever get called because the score is out of control?

lol The records that have been set are popping up non-stop all over the media. Tough to keep up with it all.

With all the substitutions and goal celebrations, I say six minutes of injury time.

Tello - what a bum! Just kidding. looked like he had the hat trick though.

Awww, lame.

in my opinion if they combined maradona and pele , the resulting player wont be as half as good as messi

I thought it was all over with my previous comment.

Sucks to concede but what a performance from Messi. The guy is god. He really is.

Messi is keeping the ball and his jersey!!!

I think the goalkeeper Bernd Leno should get Messi's shirt.

Messi goals today 5
Ronaldo goals in CL this year 4

Ha ... nobody went for Messi's jersey. I bet Bayer players were instructed not to fight over it.

Anyone know the word for 5 goals? I don't even know at this point. Messi MOTM is an understatment, Fabregas was superb today also. Pique kinda shaky but he'll def improve with more games.

APOEL and Lyon (an actual competition )
[result]gone into overtime![/result]