FC Shakhtar Donetsk vs. FC Barcelona: 5-Star Demolition at Camp Nou for Barca

Barcelona took a giant stride towards a likely Clasico showdown when they carried out a 5-1 demolition of Shakhtar Donetsk in their quarterfinal first leg at the Camp Nou. 

Andres Iniesta, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Seydou Keita and Xavi were on the mark for the Catalan giants, while Shakhtar's sole reply came from Yaroslav Rakitskiy when they were already 3-0 down.

Barcelona took the lead after just 99 seconds through Iniesta. He slotted a low shot past Andrei Pyatov at his near post after picking up a loose ball in the area. Dani Alves added the second after flying into the final third almost out of nowhere. 

Gerard Pique added to the home side’s tally in the second half before Seydou Keita and Xavi put Barca almost out of sight ahead of next week’s second leg in Ukraine.

The scoreline does not do justice to the spirited Ukrainian champions, who showed great aptitude in attacking Barcelona from the front; their finishing letting them down.

In all fairness, they showed a much more determined performance than Arsenal—who were here for the last-16 encounter—attacking Barcelona at every opportunity and the much talented Willian dribbling through Dani Alves on a number of occasions.

Barcelona were sloppy at the back and had Shakhtar taken those opportunities, we might have had a different scoreline.

But despite Barcelona's four-goal advantage heading into the return leg in Ukraine, Barcelona manager Guardiola remained wary of his opponents.

“The result is what it is, but Shakhtar are led by an experienced coach and I am still afraid,” he said.“We have to play in Donetsk first and then we will think about Real Madrid” 

Shakhtar Donetsk boss Mircea Lucescu admitted his shock at such a heavy drubbing, and has all but conceded the tie to the La Liga champions. “We weren’t expecting this,” Lucescu said.

“We have a great team that can play much better than we did. I decided not to close up and defend. I decided to try and play, to catch them out.”

The UEFA Champions League quarterfinals second leg are scheduled for next week and as things stand, I think we know who our four semifinalists are.