Barcelona 4-1 Roma: Two own goals lay semi-final foundations
Pique and Suarez were also on target at Camp Nou on Wednesday
Barcelona beat Roma 4-1 on Wednesday as they edged towards their first Champions League final since 2015.
FCB
4 ________________ 1
ROM
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FC Barcelona
Ter Stegen, Semedo, Piqué, Umtiti, Alba, Busquets (Paulinho, 66'), Rakitic, Sergi Roberto (André Gomes, 83'), Iniesta (c) (Denis Suárez, 85'), Messi y Luis Suárez.
AS Roma
Alisson, Bruno Peres, Fazio, Manolas, Kolarov, Pellegrini (Gonalons, 60'), De Rossi (c) (Defrel, 77'), Strootman, Florenzi (El Shaarawy, 72'), Dzeko y Perotti.
Goles
1-0 Min. 38 De Rossi en pp. Combinación entre Iniesta y Messi y el pase final de Andrés lo cortó De Rossi introduciendo el balón dentro de la portería de Alisson; 2-0 min.55 Manolas en propia puerta. Centro de Rakitic desde la derecha, remate de Umtiti al poste y el rechace lo introduce Manolas en su propia portería. 3-0 min. 59 Piqué. Centro de Messi desde la derecha, remata Suárez, desvía Alisson y Piqué empuja al fondo de la red. 3-1 min. 80 Dzeko. El delantero bosniio se anticipa a Alba y fusila a Ter Stegen 4-1 min. 87 Luis Suárez. Centro de Denis Suárez, rebota en un defensa romano y Luis Suárez fusila a Alisson;
Árbitro
Danny Makkelie (Holanda). Mostró tarjetas amarillas a Kolarov (44') por derribar a Messi; a Strootman (86') por agarrar a Messi;
Incidencias
Camp Nou.
Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez were on target after Roma had scored own goals either side of half time to give Barça a two goal lead.
Edin Dzeko did pull one back after Pique tapped home on the hour but Suarez scored late on to re-establish the three goal lead.
Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi returned to the Barcelona side from injuries, with Nelson Semedo preferred to Ousmane Dembele, allowing Sergi Roberto to play further forward.
Barça dominated the first half but created little, with Messi firing straight at Alisson and Ivan Rakitic hitting the post.
Roma had a penalty appeal turned down when Semedo tangled with Dzeko and Messi went down in the area at the other end a couple of times, too.
The breakthrough came when Andres Iniesta’s pass to Messi was intercepted by Daniele De Rossi, but the Italian midfielder’s touch turned the ball into his own net.
Things went from bad to worse for Roma after the break when the ball ricocheted home off Konstantinos Manolas after the ball bounced back off the post.
Pique added Barca’s third on the hour, tapping home after Alisson had saved from Suarez following good work from Messi.
The Italians then came into the game, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen producing fine stops from Gregoire Defrel and Diego Perotti.
Dzeko then scored an away goal which would have made things slightly more interesting in next Tuesday’s second leg if Suarez hadn’t fired home inside the area late on, breaking his duck in this season’s Champions League.
