Barcelona vs. AS Roma: Winners and Losers from Champions League

Barcelona progressed to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday with a resounding 6-1 win over AS Roma.

Luis Suarez opened the scoring early on and Lionel Messi marked his return from injury soon afterward to double the lead, with Suarez volleying in an outstanding third just before the break. Roma were never in the game, as the home team dominated and Gerard Pique scored too, with Messi netting his brace to add a more realistic look to the scoreline. Late drama saw Neymar miss a penalty, but Adriano score the rebound, before Edin Dzeko missed a spot-kick at the opposite end before heading in a stoppage-time consolation.

Here are all our winners and losers from the match at the Camp Nou.

Winner: Lionel Messi

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Coming back from injury for his first start since Las Palmas, Messi could have been forgiven for being slightly off the pace—but there was no danger of that, as he sought to carve apart the opposition from very early on.

He scored inside a quarter of an hour, set up countless chances for his team-mates and showed the pace and determination which comes as standard from him in usual terms to hit his second goal in the second half.

Messi was unstoppable, looked fit and sharp and played out the full 90 minutes—great for Barcelona, worrying for La Liga and Europe.

Loser: Rudi Garcia

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It's understandable that Roma boss Rudi Garcia wanted his team to squeeze play in midfield and try to press Barcelona away from the final third, but the danger in that approach was evident from three minutes into the match: The runs in behind and the excellent passing from deep just split the Italian side's defence time after time.

Neymar, Suarez and Messi had a free run on goal a ridiculous amount of times in the first half, and the Roma boss seemed unwilling to change his approach at all; the second half finally saw Roma sit a little deeper with their starting position, but the damage was already done.

It was a hefty defeat for Roma, and they'll have to try and seal qualification on the last day.

Winner: Neymar

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The Brazilian forward might not have scored on this occasion and missed a great chance to do so from the penalty spot, but in every other aspect, he was outstanding.

His movement, pace, dribbling and ability to open up Roma's defence with clever through balls and link play on the run was exceptional, giving so many problems to the back line that they simply couldn't tie him down to one area of the pitch.

A goal was missing, but not for lack of trying, going close several times even after missing his spot-kick.

Losers: Maicon and Manolas

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Any number of players from Roma could have been singled out for being beaten in their individual battles, even aside from the tactical errors in their game, and it's questionable whether the midfield had quite the appetite for the work required in the second half.

Even so, the defensive pair on the right side—Maicon at full-back, Kostas Manolas in the centre—were just ripped apart so many times that they have to be looked at. While it's fair that lots of sides can't cope with the movement and quick passing of Neymar, Suarez and Messi, the two Roma defenders simply couldn't figure out a plan; whether to get tight and stay close to each other to cut off passing lanes, or to press aggressively to Neymar and tuck in one behind the other to prevent his dribbles infield.

Both lost their man when marking in open play—notably for Pique's goal—and both were left tied in knots by dribbles directly at them.

Winner: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen

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There were a number of candidates we could have included as the last winner, including Dani Alves who put in a great performance, Luis Suarez who was deadly and Sergi Roberto who once more impressed before succumbing to injury.

After a poor start to the season though, it is Marc-Andre ter Stegen who should get some plaudits. The German goalkeeper made two very good saves to keep Roma on zero for most of the match, a strong hand from Iago Falque's shot and then another save to deny Dzeko.

A penalty save was even more impressive from ter Stegen—but there was nothing he could do about the late header which robbed him of a clean sheet. He needs to show consistency, and in the face of Claudio Bravo's excellent form at the weekend for Barcelona, this was precisely the display manager Luis Enrique would have wanted to see from his No. 2 stopper.

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