Lionel Messi the superstar striker limped off during the first game of Barcelona s Champions League quarterfinal series with Paris St. Germain and did not start Wednesday still bothered by an aching hamstring. Everyone knew though that if Barcelona fell behind it would have no choice but to turn to Messi.

When Messi finally did emerge from the bench area with Barcelona trailing by a goal fans breathlessly chronicled his every move on social media (from changing out of his warm up pants to putting on his cleats) while those in the stadium waited to see his magic. Not surprisingly he delivered.

Messi s deft pass to David Villa was the first in a progression that finished with Pedro s thunderous goal in the 70th minute giving Barcelona the result it needed to advance to the Champions League semifinals for a sixth straight season. Barcelona and P.S.G. tied 1 1 on Wednesday and were level at 3 3 on aggregate with Barcelona s two away goals serving as the tiebreaker.

That score means that two Spanish teams Barcelona and Real Madrid will join two German teams Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund in the semifinals of Europe s top club tournament. The draw to see which teams face each other in another set of two game series will be held Friday.

Although neutral fans may hope for Barcelona and Real Madrid to be drawn against German opposition setting up the possibility of a so called Cl sico between the rivals in the final at Wembley in London on May 25 Barcelona s primary focus figures to be simply ensuring that Messi the world player of the year is healthy enough to play at full strength in the semifinals regardless of the opponent.

Barcelona has many talented players but there is an obvious difference in the team s movements with Messi. Even on Wednesday when he was clearly hampered Messi seemed to steady the pace for Barcelona after P.S.G. took the lead on Javier Pastore s sharp finish in the 49th minute.

The defeat will be difficult to swallow for P.S.G. which has turned an infusion of cash from new Qatari based ownership into quick success and played well over both games against Barcelona. P.S.G. has a number of stars including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and yes David Beckham and it is not difficult to imagine the French team remaining a European force for years to come.

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