Lionel Messi hails fine performance against Chelsea

Lionel Messi spoke to the media after playing a starring role in tonight’s 3-0 defeat of Chelsea, scoring two goals and setting up the other.

“It was a really tough game” he said. “But we played strong as a team.”

“Scoring so early meant we could control the game, but we didn’t feel we had sentenced the tie until we got our third goal. Until then, we had to fight hard and suffer to achieve a very important qualification for the team.”

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was full of praise for the Argentinian in his post-match conference, and the Barça player responded by saying that he felt honoured by the words, returning the compliment by saying that the Italian “is in charge of a great team, full of players that can make a difference.”