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Holders Barcelona celebrated qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League with another stunning display on Tuesday, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi both scoring twice in a 6-1 win against Roma.The Catalans secured their place in the knockout draw and demonstrated once again why they are one of the best teams in Europe just now. Barcelona discovered they had qualified from Group E before they had kicked a ball at the Camp Nou, the 1-1 draw between BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen in Belarus ensuring their passage. Fresh from crushing eternal rivals Real Madrid 4-0 at the weekend, they then produced a performance that the Italians could not live with to secure top spot in the section. Dani Alves set up Suarez to tap in the opener before Messi, in his first start since returning from injury, made it two at the end of a superb move involving Neymar and Suarez. Suarez struck again just before the interval with a sweet volley and the rout continued in the second half as Neymar, Suarez and Messi all combined to give Gerard Pique a tap-in. Neymar and Suarez then helped tee up Messi to get his second and Barca’s fifth on the hour and Adriano crashed in the sixth after Neymar’s penalty had been saved by Wojciech Szczesny. Roma’s misery was compounded when Edin Dzeko had a late penalty saved by Marc Andre ter Stegen, although Dzeko did pull one back with the last kick of the game. “When you see the players enjoy themselves in every phase of the game you have to be satisfied. They enjoy themselves on the training ground and when they are playing and that is great,” Barca coach Luis Enrique told TV3. BATE opened the scoring in the second minute in Belarus through Mikhail Gordeichuk, but Admir Mehmedi equalised in the second half for Leverkusen. Roma still have their destiny in their own hands, though — a win at home to BATE next month will see them finish second. By AFP |
