Barcelona left everything ready for the semifinals of the Champions

[G.O.G]

A pair of autogoals by Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas facilitated the task of a resounding Barcelona by prevailing on Wednesday 4-1 against Roma, a victory that left the Catalan side with one foot in the semifinals of the Champions League.

De Rossi's desperate effort to intercept Andrés Iniesta's pass to Lionel Messi ended in calamity when the Italian midfielder deposited the ball on his own net to open the scoring after 38 minutes.

The same misfortune accompanied Kostas at 55. The clearance of the Greek central to a low center of Ivan Rakitic hit the post and then bounced off the Barca Samuel Umtiti before crossing the line of goal.

Gerard Piqué and Luis Suárez were the authors of the other goals of Barcelona in their Camp Nou feud.
"The result has been too much exaggerated, apparently in the field, because of our desire to stand up," said Eusebio Di Francesco, the Romanian coach. "We lost 4-1, I can not say we played very well, but we played the game well, with failures."
Di Francesco also complained that the referee pardoned a penalty that was committed to Edin Dzeko at the start of the match.

For Piqué, getting ahead with two autogoles is not indicative that the victory was due to good fortune.
"I do not think it's a lucky factor," said Barça. "There have been several clubs that have not entered. Things go how they go. If there are these goals, it's because we're pushing up there and sometimes this happens. "

"If you do not get close to the goal, you do not get goals in your own goal," coach Ernesto Valverde agreed.
Barcelona did not settle for the 2-0 and, four minutes later, Piqué scored the third. Nothing more had to push the ball after the rejection left by the Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who had previously handled a shot by Uruguayan Suarez.

Dzeko discounted for Roma at 80, but Suarez put definite figures and in the meantime broke a streak of 10 consecutive games without scoring in the tournament. The victory stretched Barcelona's unbeaten home record in the Champions League, with 26 games unbeaten. The streak goes back to September 2013.
"It has cost a lot," said Valverde. "They made it difficult for us to get out of the ball. They started with a good grip and sometimes, when we got over the pressure, we wanted to get there very soon. "

The second leg will be played in Rome next Tuesday.
Messi did not show any loss after the muscular ailment that prevented him from playing the friendly matches of Argentina and leaving as substitute against Sevilla last Saturday, when his goal at 89 minutes rescued a 2-2 draw.

Valverde made a small change in his formation, relegating to the extreme Ousmane Dembélé on the bench and taking Sergio Roberto from the right side to play in the attack. Roberto's position was covered by Nelson Semedo, who had not played for a muscular illness for a month.

In addition, midfielder Sergio Busquets reappeared at Barsa after losing three weeks after suffering a broken bone in his right foot.
Di Francesco had to make a modification with Lorenzo Pellegrini by Radja Nainggolan, after the Belgian midfielder was ruled out due to a muscle injury he suffered over the weekend.

In the quarterfinals for the first time in a decade, the Italian team went out of their way to hinder the hosts' possession style by deploying high pressure.

But his clumsiness in the rearguard affected the four goals of Barcelona.

 

PD: I AM HALA MADRID