Barca edge ahead of tie with another sublime goal, this time David Villa

It took just 55 minutes for Barcelona to turn around their 2-0 first leg defeat to AC Milan, the only surprise was it wasn’t the hat-trick clincher for Messi.

By Declan Whooley

The Argentinian opened the scoring with a brilliant finish within the first five minutes and you just sensed it was going to be a long night for the Italians. Sure enough by half-time it was all square with a second Messi strike.

David Villa, who has struggled to get regular first team action this season, showed his quality to put the Catalans ahead in the tie after a brilliant through ball from Xavi.

The pass, the control and finish are everything you associate from this Barca team, and not bad for a team that were being written off after some disappointing results over the past few weeks.

Milan will have to score, but the home side have been full value for their lead.

BAR3ACMIL0 by Veabiri