BEVERLY HILLS, April 05, (THEWILL) – FC Barcelona capitalised on two disastrous own goals of AS Roma to thrash the Italian side 4-1 at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.
The victory helped them to take a huge step towards reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the first time in three years.
Roma’s captain Daniele De Rossi hit an unstoppable shot into his own net to break the deadlock in the 38th minute of what had been a delicately poised first leg.
A second own goal followed 10 minutes into the second half, this time by Greek defender Kostas Manolas, to stretch the runaway La Liga leaders’ advantage.
Barca defender Gerard Pique piled misery on the Italians four minutes later, mopping up the rebound after Luis Suarez was thwarted by goalkeeper Alisson.
This was before Roma’s top scorer Edin Dzeko struck at the right end to give his side faint hope of a turnaround in the second leg.
Suarez effectively vanquished those hopes, however, by notching his side’s fourth goal three minutes from time, scoring for the first time in the UEFA Champions League in over a year.
“We weren’t lucky, we hit the post a couple of times and the own goals happened because we kept on putting them under pressure, making sure the ball was in their area far more than ours,” Pique told reporters.
“We played very well and that’s why we’ve got such a good result. It would have been better to not concede but we cannot complain, we have got a very good advantage.”
Five-times European champions Barca are still unbeaten in La Liga and the UEFA Champions League and were overwhelming favourites against Eusebio Di Francesco’s side.
In the same vein, Liverpool showed their European pedigree at Anfield on Wednesday night, outclassing and defeating a surprisingly lacklustre Manchester City 3-0.
Jurgen Klopp started with his usual attacking trio of Mo Salah, Saido Mane and Roberto Firmino, while Oxlade-Chamberlain was drafted into midfield with pressing duties in mind.
Pep Guardiola turned to a three-man defence of Kompany, Otamendi and Laporte to contain Liverpool’s attacking juggernauts, while Gabriel Jesus started in attack in place of injured Sergio Aguero.
Salah, Chamberlain and Mane got the goals for Liverpool.
