Iniesta wheels away in celebration after his dramatically early strike
Barcelona produced a Champions League masterclass as they took a giant stride towards the semi-finals by crushing Shakhtar Donetsk at the Camp Nou.
The superb Andres Iniesta slotted them ahead before his majestic pass enabled Dani Alves to take a touch and prod in.
Gerard Pique's shot deflected in off Yaroslav Rakitskiy but Rakitskiy turned a cross in as Shakhtar pulled one back.
However, Barca were rampant and Seydou Keita hit an unstoppable fourth before Xavi tapped in late on to wrap it up.
Barca must still survive the second leg in Ukraine on Tuesday to complete their passage into the last four and if they do, they will almost certainly meet their great rivals Real Madrid, who dismantled Spurs 4-0 in their first leg.
That would set up the mouth-watering prospect of four El Clasicos in the space of little more than two weeks, with the clubs also due to meet in La Liga on Saturday 16 April and in the Spanish Cup final on Wednesday 20 April.
Barca coach Pep Guardiola had warned his side about the threat of Shakhtar prior to kick-off, revealing he did not have a "good feeling" about the prospect of playing Mircea Lucescu's outfit.
Alves gets the better of Pyatov to score Barca's second goalIniesta will have calmed his coach's nerves, though as he gave Barca a dream start with the hosts' first attack of the contest.
Lionel Messi's through ball was intended for David Villa but when the ball broke off a defender into the path of Iniesta, he took full advantage, haring into the box and coolly firing past Andriy Pyatov.
Despite falling behind so early, Shakhtar gave a good account of themselves in the opening stages, with Willian's pace down the left testing Alves and Luiz Adriano posing a constant problem as the focal point of the visitors' attacks.
Willian's cross-shot forced Victor Valdes to smartly tip over and then Douglas Costa sent Adriano clean through, the 23-year-old wastefully toe-poking his golden opportunity wide from 12 yards.
Barca were not in the mood to be lenient and after Messi curled a 30-yard free-kick narrowly wide and forced Pyatov to catch his cheeky chip, they doubled their advantage.
It was chiefly thanks to the brilliance of Iniesta once more as he clipped an outrageous diagonal pass into the path of Alves, who took a superb touch to take it round Pyatov and with the outside of his right foot flick the ball into the net.
Lucescu's half-time teamtalk must have focused on damage limitation, but against a Barca team committed to wave after wave of attack and with a monopoly on possession it was an almost impossible task.
Messi fired a volley into the arms of Pyatov before the third duly arrived, Pique pulling away from his marker to direct a Xavi corner goalwards from 15 yards, the ball flying in off the unfortunate Rakitskiy.
Shakhtar were allowed one flicker of hope when Iniesta picked up a booking for encroachment that rules him out of the second leg and, when the free-kick was eventually taken, Rakitskiy beat a batch of Barca players to the ball and sent it past Valdes.
But their renewed optimism was dashed less than a minute later as Messi raced up the other end and teed up Keita just inside the Shakhtar box, the Mali midfielder crashing a magnificent left-foot drive into the roof of Pyatov's net.
With the job all but done, Barca played keep-ball from then on, though there was time for Shakhtar's Adriano to hit the post with a shot from a narrow angle.
It was left to Barcelona captain Xavi to finish the Ukraine team off, the Spaniard slotting in from close range after more fine work down the right from Alves as the Camp Nou faithful celebrated another resounding victory.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Champions League
Iniesta 2Daniel 34Pique 53Keita 60Xavi 86Barcelona 50%Shakhtar Donetsk 50%View the original article here
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