Barcelona thrash Shakhtar Donetsk to strengthen their hopes of UEFA Champions League semi-final
Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona thrashed Shakhtar Donetsk in the first-leg of the quarter-final fixture of the UEFA Champions League at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, 6 April, 2011.
The Catalan giants have strengthened their chances of playing in the semi-final of the competition, which looks to be an all-Spanish affair http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AS-Real-c38478 Madrid downed Tottenham Hotspur the day before.
The home side started the match strongly and wasted no time whatsoever to score their first goal in the second minute. Andres Iniesta found a deflected ball inside the opposition’s box and put a calm finish past http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andriy-Pyatov-c6010 to give his side the lead.
Shakhtar found their feet in the match after conceding the early goal and created a couple of good chances but failed to convert any of them. A terrible mistake from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dani-Alves-c9869 in the 13th minute almost put the visitors on level terms. The Brazilian’s
back pass was cleared under real pressure by Victor Valdez but the ball went straight to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Willian-c36898 Silva, whose first time shot went just over the bar.
It was some good defending from the away side which stopped the goals from coming. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 was denied twice in the opening 20 minutes as the Shakhtar defence was on its toes. However, their resilience did not last long and the hosts went 2-0 up in the
34th minute when Dani Alves scored through a brilliant pass from Iniesta. The right-back showed awesome control to beat the opposition goalkeeper and calmly put the ball in the empty net. The score remained 2-0 at the interval.
Barcelona started the second period with the same momentum and continued to make surging runs forward, spending most of the time in the Ukrainian side’s box. They were awarded for their offensive tactics in the 53rd minute when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Pique scored
from a corner. The defender guided his finish from close range into the net, making it 3-0 for the Catalans.
The away side were shown a ray of hope in the 59th minute when defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy scored after a superb free-kick from captain http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Darijo-Srna-c10266 to make it 3-1.
However, Shakhtar’s hopes of making a comeback took a beating in the very next minute when Seydou Keita’s thunderous strike ended in the top left corner. It was 4-1 at the hour mark and with 30 minutes still to play, it looked miserable for the Miners.
Xavi Hernandez scored a deserved fifth goal for the hosts four minutes from time to make it 5-1 for the Catalans. It was skilful play from the right from Alves, who put in an accurate cross for Xavi to score.
The return leg of the fixture will be played at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk next week.
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