Messi scores 4 goals to lead Barcelona over Arsenal and into Champions League semifinals

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Messi scores 4 goals to lead Barca over Arsenal

BARCELONA, Spain — Lionel Messi pretty much put Barcelona in the European Champions League semifinals by himself.

The reigning world player of the year scored four goals, getting a hat trick in a 22-minute span of the first half, to lift the defending champions over Arsenal 4-1 Tuesday night and advance Barcelona to the semifinals for the third straight year.

“A player like this only comes along every 25-30 years,” Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said.

Barcelona won the home-and-home, total-goals series on 6-3 aggregate and will play Inter Milan in the semifinals starting April 20 in Italy. The second leg is in Spain eight days later for a berth in the final on May 22 in Madrid.

The 22-year-old Messi, expected to lead Argentina at the World Cup, has eight Champions League goals this season and moved one ahead of Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo for this season’s scoring lead. He became the first player to score four goals in a two-legged series in the competition and with 25 goals matched Rivaldo as Barcelona’s career Champions League scoring leader.

“Of course I hope I can keep this up,” Messi said. “These four goals really make me happy. We need it to have this kind of match. We started badly, but we fixed it. What really matters is that the team keeps going like this, working and doing it well.”

Messi has 39 goals overall this season, the major reason Barcelona has a chance to overtake high-spending Real Madrid for first place in the Spanish league when they play Saturday night.

“He’s a player of such an incredible level,” Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. “There are no words — this kind of performance you have to see it.”

Nicklas Bendtner put the Gunners ahead in the 18th minute with his fifth Champions League goal of the season, tying Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney for third.

Messi then took over, scoring in the 21st, 37th and 42nd minutes for a 3-1 lead. He got his final goal in the 88th minute after Manuel Almunia stopped his initial shot. Messi swept the rebound through the goalkeeper’s legs.

“I don’t know how many players can score that goal,” Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said “It’s something that looks impossible that he makes possible. In exceptional games, exceptional players make the difference.”

Messi took advantage of a misplayed ball by Mikael Silvestre to score his first goal. He began the play for the second with a pass to streaking Eric Abidal. The back’s centering pass was blocked but landed at the feet of Pedro Rodriguez, who laid it to Messi. He beat Almunia with a right-footed shot.

Messi scooped the ball over Almunia for his third.

“Over two games they deserved to qualify,” Wenger said. “They are a very good side but, of course, they have Messi, who can make a difference at any moment in the game.”

Earlier Tuesday, Inter beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 on Wesley Sneijder’s sixth-minute goal to advance to the semifinals for the first time in seven years. The Italian champions won on 2-0 aggregate.

“True, maybe it wasn’t the most exciting game, but the real prize was reaching the semifinals,” Inter coach Jose Mourinho said. “There were 500 Inter fans here in Moscow and our job was to make the semifinals, not put on a show, and that’s what we did.”

Sneijder sent a low free kick through a defensive wall, off CSKA’s Keisuke Honda and past goalkeeper Igor Akinfeyev.

“The plan was to score before them,” Mourinho said. “In Milan we scored on the 10th shot. Today we scored on the first one.”

CSKA’s Chidi Odiah was ejected in the 49th minute, getting his second yellow card for a tackle of Samuel Eto’o. Odiah entered in the 14th minute for defender Vasiliy Berezutsky, who strained his hip in Monday’s practice, and Odiah received a yellow card for fouling Sneijder late in the first half.

“The quick goal made the task extremely difficult,” CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said. “Yes, we lost, but we never gave up. We played well.”

On Wednesday, Manchester United is home trying to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Bayern Munich and Lyon takes a 3-1 advantage to Bordeaux in an all-French quarterfinal. The last time at least one English team didn’t reach the semifinals was 2003.