Messi scored in the fifth and 40th minutes, moving into sole possession of second on the Champions League career scoring list with 58 goals. David Villa put Barcelona ahead in the aggregate series in the 55th minute, and left back Jordi Alba sealed the win when he scored in the second minute of stoppage time.

AC Milan, a seven-time winner of Europe’s top club tournament, won the first leg in Italy on Feb. 20 and nearly got a valuable away goal in the 38th minute, but 18-year-old forward M’baye Niang hit a post with an open shot on a counterattack. If he had tied the game 1-1, Barcelona would have needed at least three more goals at that point to advance because away goals are a tiebreaker.

Messi, the four-time FIFA Player of the Year, passed Ruud van Nistelrooy (56) on the Champions League scoring list and trails only Raul Gonzalez (71). With his 18th multigoal game of the season, Messi increased his season goals total to 53.

In the other match, Galatasaray won 3-2 at Schalke to advance on 4-3 aggregate and reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2001.

Real Madrid, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain also are in Friday’s draw. In the final second-round matches Wednesday, Arsenal tries to overturn a 3-1 deficit at Bayern Munich and Porto goes to Malaga with a 1-0 lead.

The post Messi nets 2 in Barca’s historic comeback appeared first on IdealCapper.

But Schalke scorer, midfielder Jermaine Jones, will miss the second leg of their last-16 tie on March 12 through suspension after picking up his third yellow card of the competition — 10 minutes before scoring.

Jones called the yellow card “stupid” but said the team was “absolutely satisfied” with the result.

Burak Yilmaz opened the scoring against the run of play in the 12th, displaying great skill to lift the ball over Schalke captain Benedikt Hoewedes with the back of his heel before blasting the ball past Timo Hildebrand.

Jones was booked in the 35th after calling for a yellow card for an opponent, but finished off a swift counterattack to equalize before the interval. Jefferson Farfan ran onto Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s ball forward before playing it into the centre for the American to score emphatically.

“Whenever it comes to the crunch, we’re there,” said Hildebrand, referring to the club’s poor midseason form.

Huntelaar, who recovered from an eye injury to play, missed two good chances to improve Schalke’s record of just one win from its last 13 games across all competitions.

Galatasaray defender Dany Nounkeu cleared from the Dutchman in the first minute, when Jones drew a save from Fernando Muslera and Farfan played in the rebound.

A wayward pass from Schalke midfielder Roman Neustaedter led to the opening goal, with recent signings Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba both involved before Selcuk Inan found Burak Yilmaz to score his seventh goal of the competition.

Huntelaar then missed with the goal at his mercy after failing to connect with Hoewedes’ header at the far post.

Two minutes later, Hildebrand saved from Drogba and former Schalke midfielder Hamit Altintop struck the crossbar from the rebound.

Hildebrand was again called into action to deny Burak Yilmaz, before Jones drew the sides level.

Sneijder was taken off at halftime after failing to deal with Schalke’s forays down the right.

However, the visitors maintained most of the possession after the break, only to be let down by the final ball.

The 19-year-old Julian Draxler berated Huntelaar for failing to read his intentions as another pass went astray in the penalty area.

Huntelaar and Burak Yilmaz had chances to win at either end, but the Dutchman fired over before being replaced, while the impressive Turkey striker was narrowly wide of the far post.

Galatasaray midfielder Nordin Amrabat laid out the strategy for the return leg: “The formula for victory is very simple. We need to score and win (in Gelsenkirchen). But it won’t be an easy task.”

The post Schalke salvages draw vs. Galatasaray appeared first on IdealCapper.

Goals by Kroos in the seventh minute and Mueller in the 21st built a 2-0 lead. After Lukas Podolski scored for Arsenal in the 55th, Mario Mandzukic got Bayern’s final goal in the 77th.

The second leg of the total-goals series is in Germany on March 13.

“Let’s not hide the truth,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said, “it will be very difficult. We will try to make the impossible possible.”

In Tuesday’s other game, Joao Moutinho scored in the 56th minute to give Porto a 1-0 win over visiting Malaga.

The first leg ends Wednesday when AC Milan hosts Barcelona and Schalke is at Galatasaray.

While Bayern leads the Bundesliga by 15 points and reached the Champions League final in two of the last three years — losing both — Arsenal is in the midst of the most trying season since Wenger was hired in October 1996.

Arsenal is fifth in the Premier League, 21 points behind first-place Manchester United and four back of rival Tottenham for England’s last berth in next season’s Champions League.

The Gunners, who haven’t won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup, were knocked out by fourth-tier Bradford in December’s League Cup quarterfinals and were eliminated from the FA Cup’s fifth round by second-tier Blackburn last season.

Now this year’s Champions League title is a longshot.

“You have to give credit for their class,” Wenger said of Bayern. “In patches in the first half, there was a difference in quality.”

Arsenal central defenders Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny had a poor night, with the first goal coming after Bayern collected an errant clearance from Koscielny. Mueller crossed for Kroos, who beat goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with an 18-yard volley.

Mueller scored when he poked the ball into an unguarded net after Szczesny parried a header from an unmarked Daniel Van Buyten.

Arsenal’s players were jeered when they walked off at halftime, while Bayern fans sang another rendition of “Football’s Coming Home” in English.

“We didn’t start great and that’s been a thing for us this season,” Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere said. “Maybe it’s a bit of nerves or anxiety because we show what we can do when we play.”

Podolski cut the gap when he headed Jack Wilshere’s corner kick into an open net. But Mandzukic finished a sweeping move by bundling in Philipp Lahm’s low cross at the far post, the ball looping up off the Croatian’s heel and beyond Szczesny.

“We are currently in astonishing form,” said Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, who will be replaced by Pep Guardiola this summer. “Our quality is we can punish even the smallest mistakes of our opponents.”

The post Bayern grabs upper hand against Arsenal appeared first on IdealCapper.