Messi's Late Goal Gives Barcelona Group F Title With a 2-1 Victory

After having a great year in the UEFA Champions League this year by winning the Champions League final and a solid job in Group F, FC Barcelona played their final Champions League match of 2009 against Dynamo Kiev in the Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium.

In order to advance onto the knockout stage, Barcelona only needed to get a draw out of this match while Dynamo Kiev needed to win in order to advance onto the knockout stage.

Early on in the match, Dynamo struck first in this important encounter, as Andriy Yarmolenko was fouled and Andriy Shevchenko took the free kick.

On the ensuing free kick, Shevchenko found the head of Artem Milevskiy, who redirected Shevchenko's cross past Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes, and gave Dynamo Kiev an early 1-0 lead.

After the goal, Barcelona started to pound the Dynamo defense and had several great opportunities, but Dynamo Kiev keeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy was equal to the challenge, and made several great saves to keep the score 1-0 in favor of the Ukrainian side.

But the Catalan side were able to tie the match at one in the 32nd minute, as Xavi was able to score on a low cross from Eric Abidal to knot the match at one.

After the goal, both sides had chances to take the lead, but Barcelona continued to find themselves offsides when they attacked, and a late free kick by Shevchenko hit the Barcelona wall and at the half, the match was tied at one.

As the second half begun, Barcelona continued to attack the Dynamo net, but were continuously denied by Shovkovskiy and by misses.

But Dynamo Kiev were able to continue to make use of their limited time with possession, as Shevchenko and the rest of the Dynamo attack were able to get scoring opportunities, but the Barcelona defense continued to deny Dynamo from scoring.

But as the game headed towards its conclusion, Barcelona won a late free kick and Barcelona star Lionel Messi delivered a great strike from 20 yards out that beat Shovkovskiy and gave Barcelona a 2-1 lead just four minutes from stoppage time.

After the goal, Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had chances to ice the game late, but Shovkovskiy was able to deny them as Barcelona won 2-1 to win Group F.

Also with the loss, Dynamo Kiev have been eliminated from all European competition this season as they have finished fourth in Group F.