The Catalans were held to a 0-0 draw at Camp Nou against Benfica and a moment of concern saw Lionel Messi pick up a knock during the match.
S.L Benfica failed to make their progress to the knock-out round of the UEFA Champions League as they could only play a draw with the Camp Nou outfit.
Portuguese side Benfica had to make sure that they won at Barcelona in order to keep their Champions League hopes alive, while also keeping an eye on the match between Celtic and Spartak Moscow.
The match saw http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 field a second string team against their guests for the night and the Portuguese might think that they could have done better with the chances that they managed to make throughout the encounter.
Benfica made the brighter start, as former Real Madrid youngster Rodrigo had the chance to put the guests ahead, but his selfishness in front of goal meant that the opportunity went begging.
The Blaugrana defence continued to look shaky as Lima wasted a glorious opportunity to send the Portuguese side in to the lead, but the Brazilian’s diving header did not turn out worthy of testing Pinto.
Benfica again got the hold of the game but were seen as hugely un-lucky not to have broken the deadlock as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pinto-c30032 and came back of the bar.
The Portuguese outfit started the second half in the same fashion as within a minute, Nolito’s promising looking curling shot went wide of the target.
Tito Vilanova decided to introduce http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 in the 58th minute of the game in order to impose Barcelona’s hold on the game.
It was however not to be Messi’s night, as he chased the record of German great Gerd Muller.
Messi had so far bagged 84 goals in the current calendar year, compared to Muller’s tally of 85, and with just a goal more to achieve the glorious feat; the Catalan crowd well expected the argentine to make history.
Messi however picked up an injury later in the game and was forced to leave on a stretcher.
The match finished 0-0 as Barcelona and Celtic both qualified form their group.
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