Inter Milan 3 Barça 1

Champions League semi-final, Inter 3 : Barcelona 1

Messi leads Barca through to quarter finals

Gross: Messi alongside Maradona

FC Barcelona outclassed VfB Stuttgart and progress to the Champions League quarter-finals.The final score, 4-0, hardly reflected the domination of Messi and his teammates...
German team coach Christian Gross thinks the dominating champions may have been further motivated by the fact that their eternal rivals Real Madrid were knocked out of the competition by Lyon the past week.

Stuttgart strategist Christian Gross stated after the match:
"Were missing the bravery which served us so well three weeks ago.They started coming at us so quickly and we tried our best to stay with the pace.They were playing in front of their supporters and they are so strong, both individually and collectively.Maybe the fact Real Madrid were eliminated gave Barcelona extra motivation.[Messi] is the best player in the world. He's a fantastic talent and it's incredible to think he's only 22. We can now compare Messi with Maradona."

Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic during training in Stuttgart

n the first knockout round first leg of the Champions League, FC Barcelona v VfB Stuttgart is clearly the favorite, but the team of Christian Gross, however, has nothing to lose.

The Barca players Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic during training in Stuttgart pictures:

Lionel Messi performs during his team's training session at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart

Lionel Messi received Spanish daily 'Mundo Deportivo' extraordinary award to the best soccer player

FC Barcelona's Argentinian striker Lionel Messi, smiles after receiving the Spanish daily 'Mundo Deportivo' extraordinary award to the best soccer player, during an event held at the Congress Palace in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, 21 January 2010.