Lionel Messi scored his 100th goal in
European football for Barcelona to leave them home and dry in the
qualifying stage despite a pre-match monsoon and a Gerard Pique red
card.
His century came in just 122
games. Cristiano Ronaldo is the only other player to reach three figures
and he clocked up his 100 goals in 143 matches.
Messi’s
free-kick – he seems to take them with the same certainty that he will
score that some players take penalties – got Barcelona out of a hole
after Scottish referee William Collum had sent off Pique for scoring
with his hand.
The man advantage and
some torrential rain that kept up for most of the game might have served
to level the playing field for Olympiacos but far greater misfortunes
have to befall Barcelona before the Messi factor is rubbed out.
The
rain eased slightly on kick-off but it was still horrible weather for
defenders and Pique was booked early for a late challenge on Vadis
Odidja, an event that became far more significant two minutes before the
break.
Barcelona took the lead in the
18th minute when Gerard Deulofeu crossed from the right and Dimitris
Nikolaou put past his own goalkeeper.
The own-goal count for Barcelona now stands at five this season. Only Leo Messi with 15 has scored more.
Twice
in the next five minutes Barcelona could have extended their lead.
First Paulinho scored from Luis Suarez’ cross only for the referee’s
assistant to rule it out for offside and the Brazilian then struck the
bar as the one-way traffic continued.
Suarez was then put through by Messi but finshed too close to Silvio Proto and the Olympiakos keeper palmed the effort away.
It
had been a quiet night for referee Collum and his assistants – one of
whom, Douglas Ross, the Conservative MP for Moray, had skipped a
parliamentary debate on universal credit to be at the Camp Nou.
But all that changed two minutes before half time when he had a big call to make.
A
Gerard Deulofeu shot had been blocked by Olympiakos keeper Silvio
Proto. From a yard out Pique nudged it over the line with his arm. There
was perhaps a word from the match official on the line and Collum took
out the yellow card. Having already been cautioned Pique was off down
the tunnel two minutes before the rest of his team-mates. It was his
10th career red card, but his first in the Champions League after 92
appearances.
With Javier Mascherano on
for Deulofeu after the break Barcelona set about defending their lead
10-men. Suarez and referee Collum exchanged words after Andres Iniesta
was flattened and the referee did nothing. Olympiakos fans were now in
good voice up in the gods. It had stopped raining on them and their team
was starting to threaten 10-man Barcelona. But the next questionable
challenge did not escape Collum’s attention and it led to the second
decisive goal.
Nikolaou went through
Messi and was booked. From the resulting free-kick on the edge of the
area Messi scored his 100th goal in European competition with a shot
that bent Proto’s fingers back as it flew into the roof of the net.
That
was ‘Game Over’ for Olympiakos. ‘Thanks for playing’. It was 3-0
moments later when Messi tricked his way to the byline an pulled the
ball back. It evaded the intended targets but ran all the way out to
Lucas Digne who drilled into the far corner for 3-0.
Olympiakos
made it 3-1 when Nikolaou scored at the right end this time, two
minutes from time. But Barcelona took the three points giving them a
maximum return at the halfway stage of qualifying.
ends
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