European Champions League

Barcelona 4 - Bayern Munich 0

Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Daniel Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol; Xavi, Touré Yaya (Busquets 81'), Iniesta; Messi, Eto'o (Bojan 90'), Henry (Keita 74'). 4-3-3.
Bayern: Butt; Oddo, Demichelis, Breno, Lell; Schweinsteiger, Van Bommel, Zé Roberto (Sosa 77'); Altintop (Ottl 46'), Toni, Ribéry. 4-3-3.

Goals:
1-0. 09. Messi. Picked up Eto'o pass and stroked shot wide of Butt.
2-0. 12. Eto'o. Ran on to Messi pass and shot under legs of keeper.
3-0. 38. Messi. Got on end of Henry cross to turn ball in from close up.
4-0. 43. Henry. Latched on to loose ball and beat keeper from left of area.

Barcelona put a foot and a half in the semi-finals after a 4-0 win over Bayern Munich. All the goals came in the first half, with Messi opening the scoring early on after picking up a pass from Eto'o on right of goal to curl a shot wide of Butt. Three minutes later Messi set up Eto'o for a second, and the Argentinian forward felt himself unlucky to have a penalty appeal turned down when he was flattened in the area, English referee Howard Webb adding insult to injury by showing him a yellow card for what he considered to be a dive. It was too much for coach Pep Guardiola, who was sent to the stands for remonstrating with the fourth official on the touchline.

The attacks continued, Henry just missing the target but clashing with Butt in the follow through, the keeper needing stitches to his face as a result. A shot from Eto'o was deflected over the top, but soon afterwards Messi got on the end of Henry's cross to make it three. And before half time another good run by Messi was stopped by a cynical elbow from Van Bommel, the ball rolling out to Henry for him to guide and angled shot in to the far corner of the net.

Bayern's first real chance didn't come until a couple of minutes later, when Ribéry broke through but shot wide. Messi came close to fifth when Butt pushed his shot on to the post and away after the restart, and Puyol made an important tackle on Zé Roberto as he lined up to pull the trigger at the other end.

Guardiola decided to rest some of his his key players for future occasions, but even so they could have scored more, Iniesta's good run ending with a shot just wide of the post, and Messi denied a hat-trick when his shot hit his own man Keita as it was going in. But a good enough result to go in to next week's second leg with confidence, with a semi-final tie against the winner of the clash between Liverpool and Chelsea as the prize.