flywoman

Cesc and Leo celebrate a PK

Woot! Barcelona advances to the Champions League Semifinals

It was not a perfect game by any means, but the job got done. The first half was a big nail-biter, with Leo Messi scoring the first goal from a PK, an equalizer from AC Milan's Nocerino, and then another PK from Leo and a lovely goal from Iniesta shortly before halftime. Once dominance had been established, though, the second half of the game devolved into a series of fouls from the increasingly-desperate visitors, with the final score remaining at 3-1.

Barcelona is rarely awarded penalty kicks, but yesterday they got two - first when Leo Messi was clearly fouled in the box, and then when someone pulled Sergio Busquets' shirt. Almost as surprising, Messi managed to convert both of them to goals, first faking out the goalkeeper by shooting to the left, and then scoring a more typical goal in the bottom righthand corner with his left foot. Apparently there's been quite an uproar in the sports world about all this - claims that the ref favored Barcelona, particularly in calling the second PK, etc, etc. Which to me is a little weird, given how large a fraction of Cristiano Ronaldo's goals for Real Madrid consists of penalty kicks.

Whatever. As Leo Messi likes to say, "We won, and that is the important thing." Today we'll find out whom we face in the semifinals following Chelsea's game against Benfica.