Barca breeze past Panathinaikos
Reuters - Wednesday 24 November 2010, 23:43
ATHENS - Pedro Rodriguez scored in each
half as Barcelona strolled into the Champions League last 16 as
Group D winners with a 3-0 victory over Panathinaikos on
Wednesday.
After Djibril Cisse had missed an early opportunity for the
hosts, Barcelona broke the deadlock in the 27th minute with
Rodriguez converting Daniel Alves's threaded pass.
Second-half goals from Lionel Messi, who netted for the 10th
game in succession for club and country, and Rodriguez sealed a
comfortable win for Josep Guardiola's side, who remain top of
Group D with 11 points.
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The result, coupled with Rubin Kazan's 1-0 win over FC
Copenhagen, eliminated Panathinaikos.
Panathinaikos seemed content to watch their opponents weave
their magical passing patterns in the first half and wait for a
chance on the counter.
It was a ploy which almost worked as newly-appointed
Panathinaikos captain Cisse should have opened the scoring when
he was sent clear by Lazaros Christodoulopoulos's superb pass.
The Frenchman was denied by a smart save from Valdes.
Barca continued to press forward, and the hosts' diligent
backline was finally undone by Alves, who played in Rodriguez.
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Keeper Alexandros TzorvasTzorvas was then called into action
twice in the space of a minute before half-time for saves from
Rodriguez and David Villa.
The Greens' goalkeeper continued to do his best to thwart
Barca and Adriano in particular after half-time, acrobatically
palming to safety two powerful shorts from the Barca left-back.
EL CLASSICO
But he could do nothing to deny Messi his sixth Champions
League strike of the season two minutes after the hour mark as
the Argentine bundled home a pass from Adriano and good work by
Andres Iniesta.
Iniesta was the provider of Barca's third goal, sending over
a left-wing cross which was converted from close range with
consummate ease by Rodriguez to seal an impressive win.
Guardiola praised his goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who made an
impressive save on a one-on-one with Cisse.
"Valdes made a fantastic save to stop Cisse, he is a great
player who never disappoints us," said Guardiola, whose team
face Real Madrid in the El Classico derby next Monday.
"It was important that we raised our performance in the
second half, we played a good passing game and we scored good
goals. We are in very good shape right now but this doesn't
guarantee success. Every game is different, and I expect the
match against Real to be a different proposition."