In a few years he will probably need a sole house for the collected balls of the hat-trick scored goals, while the other will probably be taken as a perfect embodiment of midfield passing, conducting, and controlling! These are respectively: the genius (which the term does not really fit him anymore, he is beyond that!) Leo Messi, and the maestro, Xavi Hernandez, conductor of FC Barcelona’s symphonies.

Between the hopes of the Gunners to win the Champions League title for their first time and the hope of the Blaugrana to win the title for the second time in a row, lay the capricious second leg of the Champions League quarter final.

“It is going to be a hard game but we think we can do it. This is a trophy we want to win and to win the Champions League you have to beat the best teams,” so said Nicklas Bendtner, Arsenal’s striker, at a press conference. It is as if Arsenal were building their hopes on a mere 11 minutes of the first game where they were able to score two goals against Barcelona. What they all missed was that Barcelona themselves were dull, lost concentration, and felt they needed to save energy for the coming tough weeks.

Barcelona lost a two goal lead in the away game, but they would never fall down at their home, the fortress, the Camp Nou. Nevertheless, it almost appeared tonight that Bendtner’s words were a prophecy coming true. 18 minutes after the start, Barcelona were down by a goal, scored by Bendtner himself, after what appeared to be a foul against Milito, who lost the ball for Arsenal to score.

Things seemed gloomy, the night was becoming darker, and the fate seemed to doom Barcelona with the likes of Rubin Kazan’s game in the group stage. Minutes of domination and ball control were nullified by a mere chance on goal and a referee notorious for controversy, the German Wolfgang Stark.

Happy as they were, Arsenal’s players were content, thinking it was really their night to kill the beast. However, this was no fairytale, and any room for fanaticizing is not allowed in such circumstances.

Three minutes later, Messi, and words fail here to precisely describe him, scored the first goal for Barcelona! It was like a manipulative magical spark; with something like magic, like Messi was remotely casting a spell on Arsenal players. It was not Barcelona players that gave him the assist, but Arsenal’s defender, seemingly hypnotized, passed Messi the ball and gave him the least of space for him to launch a rocket into the back of the net of the stubborn Almunia, Arsenal’s goalkeeper.

The Camp Nou, with almost 98,000 spectators, all cheered up again calling the name of Messi and of Barcelona.

Dare you score against us in the Camp Nou, you’ll not come out unscathed Messi seemed to warn Arsenal as he scored the first goal – and he never ceased to score.

The work done by Barcelona players was superb. Ultimate ball control and all the passes were passing through the maestro Xavi who completed 95 passes in the game! Alves stretched the game on one side, Abidal on the other, Keita and Busquets controlled the midfield, and Xavi directed the passes and controlled the pace of the game choosing where and how the passes are played.

The first half did not contain the wasted chances of the first leg, but it contained what the first leg missed: Messi at work – painting, composing, writing, singing, playing music, and above all playing football.

The second Barcelona goal was in the style of the goals against Athletic Bilbao last Saturday. Messi played a through ball to Abidal; the Left Back in turn played a low cross in the six yard box, the ball bounced off Arsenal’s defenders, who were once again hypnotized, leaving the chance for Pedro to set the ball for Messi who wandered with the ball as he wished before putting it off Almunia into the net.

Five minutes later, while Wenger, was giving orders for his players to lower the pace of the game and not concede a third goal, Messi directed a long aerial pass from Marquez to Keita who headed the pass to Messi once again. The genius took the ball, checked the offside flag, cut his way through the empty space off to the penalty area, took a final glimpse at Almunia, and calmly chipped the ball above the goalie to celebrate his third hat-trick this season. Almunia stood watching, what else can he do anyway! Everybody, at the Camp Nou and everywhere else, stood applauding, amazed, mesmerized, in awe of the unexplainable, the unbelievable, the astonishing.

The second half was played at a slower pace, the Blaugrana saving their energy for coming Saturday, and the Gunners accepting their fate. Abidal limped off injured, leaving his place for Maxwell. Guardiola, unlike the first leg, realized that he needed to control the midfield as the defensive line seemed shaky at times. He did not want anymore two goals scored at the blink of an eye, and so he took off Bojan for Toure in the 55th minute.

Two substitutions were made by Wenger to try to revive his team, but in the absence of key players such as Fabregas, Arshavin, and Gallas, he did not have many choices. Eboue and Eduardo were inserted in place of  Silvestre and Rosicky in the 64th and 73rd minutes respectively. Nothing really changed, except for a couple of serious chances from Arsenal that passed by Valdes who had nothing much to do the whole night except for the conceded goal.

The second half proceeded smoothly and ended with amazement; two minutes after Iniesta was on the field replacing the hardworking Pedro, Messi once again found himself in empty space to wander with the ball. The pass was from Xavi, and Messi did all the rest: dribbled the ball, passed through the defenders, fired, and then put the rebound through the legs of Almunia and into the back of the net, making him look like a fool.

With Ibra, Iniesta, Pique, and Puyol out, Barcelona still managed to play a high level aesthetic football. They forced Wenger to change his tactics and play defensively. Arsenal players went out to the field nervous, scared, and fed up with Barcelona players that they knocked them down every now and then; these are not of Arsenal’s ethics of play but upon necessity things take a different course.

The Blaugrana tended to humiliate even the team who tries to play total-football. They make even the great teams look like regular ones, great players look average, and complex games as simple ones.

Cheer and celebration is allowed but not for more than tomorrow. The Champions League task is achieved and Barcelona is to play Inter Milan, again after playing against them in the group stage, in the semi-final. The upcoming task is that of La Liga, where the Blaugranas will be facing Los Blancos coming Saturday in El Clasico. Nothing is yet resolved and the morale boost of the Catalans might play a major role in concluding the game. The scenario is parallel to last year’s when Barcelona played Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final and Real Madrid in the La Liga in one week, and they came out victorious. The main difference though is that Real Madrid is a different team nowadays.

As Arsenal players go back to England lamenting on how pity they appeared against Barcelona and try to focus on the Premiere League, the Blaugranas will deliberate on the toughest game of the whole season at the Santiago Bernabeu – Team against individuals, joy against duty, talent against money, Barca against Madrid.