The world witnessed a thrilling match on 16th February 2011, when Arsenal took on Barcelona in the Champions League. Barcelona is the favorite to win the title this year and no doubt Arsenal did a great job defeating the favorites. Every expert, analyst and fan waited for this intriguing match up. The match was a thriller and the end result a surprise. With Barcelona practically unbeatable up to now, the soccer scoreboards question is, what went wrong? Here is a rundown:

Lionel Messi
Messi is unstoppable. He has taken the game of soccer to an entirely new level which nobody could have ever imagined. There is nothing that can stop him when he is in full flow and his shooting and placement skills are out of this world. Barcelona depends a lot on Messi’s performance, but unfortunately was not up to the mark against Arsenal. Despite his pass that helped Villa score the first goal and give Barcelona a lead over Arsenal in the first half, his three big misses were instrumental in Barcelona’s defeat, and normally he would have put all three of them away with ease.

The controversial goal
The soccer scoreboards showed that Messi scored a goal in the 39th minute of the game which was called offside by the referee. Many people believe that Messi was not offside when he moved in. This incident proved to be the most crucial in the match because had it been a goal, Barcelona would have been 2 goals up in the first half.

Jack Wilshere
Nobody could have ever imagined a youngster perform so well against one of the most talented midfield trios in the world, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. Wilshere has played less than 50 games for Arsenal yet he was in the company of the five of the world’s greatest midfielders, Fabregas, Nasri, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets. Despite this, he dominated as a midfielder during the last half an hour of the game which was very crucial for both Barcelona as well as for Arsenal. He undoubtedly has a bright future playing for the Gunners and for England.

The second half
The second half was the turning point of the game. Barcelona were 1 goal up when they entered the second half, however things changed when Van Persie scored the first goal for Arsenal in the 78th minute of the game. Just 5 minutes after Persie’s goal, with the help of Nasri’s cross, Arshavin scored the 2nd goal for Arsenal. Things got tough after the 2nd goal for Barcelona. Although they still had the lion’s share of possession, there was little time left and they could not capitalize on their obvious overall superiority.

The two teams will meet again in the return leg at the Camp Nou. It surely will be an epic match in which Arsenal will try to halt Barcelona’s progress by defeating them once again. Personally, depsite things going wrong for Barcelona in London, I can’t see them not making it through to the next round in the Nou Camp.

For more information on Barcelona, go to:
en.wikipedia.org