Champions League Round of 16 continued!

Well today was a record setter in terms of football. I'd like to begin with Cypriot side APOEL's match with Lyon. Gustavo Manduca had a fantastic match early on, giving APOEL the vital goal in the 9th minute in their tie with French giants Lyon in Cyprus before succumbing to a 2nd yellow in the 115th minute of extra time. His initial card was unfortunate as it was handed out after some boisterous celebrations. Nevertheless, APOEL held their nerve through-out normal time and extra time before claiming victory in the penalty shoot-out! APOEL's Ailton started things on the right foot - scoring as Kim Kallstrom did for Lyon. Nuno Morais and Lisandro likewise did for APOEL and Lyon respectively. Nektarios Alexandrou and Bafetimbi Gomis similarly struck for their respective sides. And so, going into the 4th kick Dionisios Chiotis randomly seemed to turn on: he first saved Alexandre Lacazette's shot before denying Michel Bastos on the 5th shot. Since Ivan Trickovski was able to convert his 4th shot, Chiotis' 5th save sealed the deal for the Cypriots as they proceeded to celebrate their fantastic achievement. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, Spain, Barcelona faced Bayer Leverkusen in their 2nd leg fixture honestly needing a couple goals to go through scot-free. Good Lord did they achieve that goal! With 63% of possession and 19 attempts to Bayer's 7, Barcelona looked confident winners statistically. Then add the score line to that tally: 7-1! That's right, an aggregate score of 10-2 for Barca! Lionel Messi got the ball rolling for the Catalan side with his shot in the 25th minute. He maintained Barca's momentum single handedly as he rolled the ball into the left corner of the net after connecting with Andres Iniesta's pass. So with the score line 2-0 at the half, Bayer may have given up as they realized who they were playing: probably the best team in the world today. Messi went on to complete his hat-trick in the 49th minute after collecting a lob ball from Cesc Fabregas - Messi then rolled the ball along and chipped the ball into the goal beautifully. The debutante on the Barcelona side, Tello, then made his presence felt after coming on from the bench: running down the right flank, he pulled in and was able to get the ball into the net from quite the angle with the side of his foot. That was in the 55th minute of the match. Messi then tacked on his 4th, Barca's 5th, after Bayer's goalkeeper Bernd Leno who, admittedly, was having a bad 2nd half after a decent 1st allowed the ball to slip through his grip and provided the Argentine maestro with a wide open net. This 5th came in the 58th minute to much acclaim. Tello then struck his 2nd goal on his debut in the 62nd minute after Bayer's Leno slipped up once more: providing the Spaniard just enough space to clip the ball under the keeper's body. With the score line at 6-0, one may have expected Barca to give the hapless German side a rest; however, Messi must not have gotten the message as he slotted home a Champions League record 5th goal to make it 7-0 in the 84th minute. Leverkusen did get a bit of joy though: Simon Rolfes and Karim Bellarabi played a nice one-two through the Barca defense before Bellarabi blasted the ball into the net: 7-1. Hope you enjoyed the matches and make sure to catch some of tomorrow's games!