In a performance which brought back memories from last seasons clash against Lyon, Lionel Messi lead FC Barcelona to a 4-0 demolition of Stuttgart at the Camp Nou tonight. In the build up of the match, Barca received a bad news in the form of Xavi being ruled out for the tie. He has injured his thigh and will be unavailable for two weeks. But that was the only thing which went against us. First half goals from Lionel Messi and Pedro killed the game; Messi added a second in the second half , while Bojan helped himself with a goal within first minute of his introduction. It was another Superlative performance by Messi which secured the match for us. Guardiola surprised many by deciding to start Ibrahmovic from the bench. Henry started in the centre, Messi on right and Pedro on left. The absence of Ibra meant we played at a very good tempo from the start of the match. The midfield had Iniesta and Busquets and Toure playing the holding midfielder role. The defense had the usual look with Alves and Maxwell flanked on the each side of Puyol and Pique infront of Valdes.FC Barcelona dominates the Game from start
FC Barcelona started dominating the match from the onset. In the 2nd minute Messi released Henry on the left but from a narrow angle he could hit only staraight at Lehman. In the 4th minute pedro shot wide from a promisng position after Messi cut-back the ball to him. In the 7th minute 
Barca had their first scare but Alves produced an essentail intervention denying Stuttgart. In the 13th minute Messi put Barac ahead with another wonder goal. Messi received the ball from Toure in centre and set off in his trademark run before slotting the ball into the right corner of the post. The defenders were distarcted by Toure's run infront of Messi, they waited for Messi to pass the ball but they forgot that they were dealing with Messi. In the 23rd minute Barca incresed the lead via pedro. Messi played a great ball to Toure on the left who squared off the ball to Pedro in the centre. In the 28th minute Toure skipped past a couple of challenges on the left and squared a great ball to Henry in centre but Henry struggled to reach the ball. The rest of the half went without much fanfare with Barca dominating the entire possession.
FC Barcelona Continues Their Domination
FC Barcelona continued to dominate the proceeding after the half. In the 56th minute Toure had a great chance to make the scoreline 3-0 after being set-up by Messi, but he shot wide. But in the 60th minute Messi scored another great goal to take FC Barcelona 3-0 up. Pedro sets off in 
a great run on the right and then squared the ball to Alves, who played it to Messi in the centre on the edge of box. Messi turned escaping from the defender and wrong footing Lehman adn slot the ball past Lehman. In the 66th minute Ibrahmovic was introduced inplace of Busquets. In the 68th minute Alves sent a great cross into the box, but Messi's header was saved by Lehman. In the 72nd minute Alves sent in another great cross into box, Messi chested the ball in air and volleyed before touching the ground but the defender was somehow able to block the shot. The resulting corner saw Messi playing the deep corner to Iniesta, he then played a great ball to Alves in centre who squared the ball to Henry in centre but Henry failed to head it. In the 86th minute Messi placed his shot wide after some great play skipping past defenders, but failed to finish on a one on one situation. In the 88th minute Bojan was introduced inplace of Iniesta. In teh next minute Ibrahmovic played a great ball releasing Bojan who calmly finished past Lehman taking the soreline 4 - 0.
After the recent dissappointing performance, it looks like we are started to play with some confidence. Tonight performance was complete in all aspects. The pace was back in Barca's game and our players showed great vigour to retrieve ball whenever lost possession. There were two exceptional performance tonight, the first one was from Lionel Messi. He has been in great form and we are so lucky to be blessed with the greatest talent in our team. The second was from Yaya Toure. His initial few touches were poor but after that he showed his true class. A lot of people used to prefer Busquests ahead of Toure, but tonight he showed the difference in class between a Toure and a Busquets. Iniesta may not have been in his creative best but boy he was all over the place winning ball after ball. Another commandable performance came from Maxwell who won most of the long balls in air. The rest of the team played their part to perfection. The team looks like is gelling together again and with Xavi coming back we should be in great form. But the worrying part is Ibrahmovic, the team looked great with out Ibra and the pace was also great. Ibrahmovic is still struggling with staying onside. Guardiola has a real headache on his hand with Ibra selection.