Rampant Barcelona and Galatasaray go through

A double by the mercurial Lionel Messi helped Barcelona reach the Champions League last eight by overhauling AC Milan’s two-goal first-leg lead while Galatasaray joined them with a win at Schalke 04 on Tuesday.

Milan managed a surprise 2-0 win at the San Siro last month to stun Barca but the competition favourites stormed back with a mesmerising 4-0 win in the return match to grab a 4-2 aggregate victory as World Player of the Year Messi led by example.

David Villa curled in a third goal after 55 minutes and Jordi Alba added another late on to help Barca become the first team to overturn a two-goal first leg deficit without an away goal as they reached the last eight for the sixth straight time.

Galatarasay, who drew 1-1 at home to Schalke last month, prevailed 4-3 on aggregate following a frantic 3-2 win in Gelsenkirchen.

Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder’s side looked to be on the way out when Roman Neustaedter scored for the Germans after 17 minutes following a scrappy corner.

Former Schalke player Hamit Altintop blasted in from distance eight minutes before the break for the Turks and free-scoring Burak Yilmaz soon gave Galatasaray the advantage with a lob.

Schalke’s Michel Bastos levelled the scores after the break but it was not enough and Umut Bulut made sure for the visitors with a breakaway effort in injury time.

Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Paris St Germain and Juventus all won through last week to the quarter-finals.

Bayern Munich host Arsenal and Malaga welcome Porto in Wednesday’s final last-16 matches with the Germans and the Portuguese favourites to progress after winning 3-1 and 1-0 in their respective first legs.

Reuters