Messi helps Barça sink Napoli to reach last 8

Barcelona's Lionel Messi scores their third goal against Napoli which was later disallowed following VAR review at Camp Nou, Barcelona August 8, 2020. — Reuters

BARCELONA (Reuters): A fired-up Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a 3-1 win at home to Napoli on Saturday for a 4-2 aggregate victory which took the club into the Champions League quarter-finals for the 13th consecutive season where they face Bayern Munich.

The Catalans had a shaky start but took the lead in the 10th minute with a powerful header from a corner by Clement Lenglet before Messi scored a superb second in the 23rd, seeing off four defenders to curl the ball into the far bottom corner.

Messi had the ball in the net again soon after following a superb team move but the goal was harshly ruled out for handball by the Argentine following a VAR review, although Messi later won a penalty which Luis Suarez converted for Barça’s third.

Napoli got one back when Lorenzo Insigne converted a spot kick at the end of the first half and were the better side after the interval but Barça survived to set up a mouth-watering clash with Bayern in the Final Eight tournament in Lisbon next Friday.

Messi had sounded the alarm after Barcelona’s rusty performance in the 1-1 draw in the last-16 first leg back in February, saying they stood no chance of winning Europe’s top prize, which has eluded them since 2015, unless they improved.