“I Was Surprised” – Messi Hails ‘Magical’ Ronaldo

The win saw Barcelona make it 30 Champions League games at Camp Nou unbeaten, the best home run of any team, but it was Tuesday’s results that proved shocking the Spanish side’s star man, Lionel Messi.

Juve slipped past Atletico Madrid in Tuesday’s second leg, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring two headers and a penalty to see the Italian club overturn a 2-0 first-leg loss and leaving the Barca star to marvel at the exploits of his former Real Madrid rival.

“Cristiano and Juventus were awesome,” he told Movistar following Wednesday’s win over Lyon. “It was a big surprise because I thought Atletico would be stronger.  “But Juventus overcame them and Cristiano had a magical night with three goals.”

Messi and Barcelona must now wait until Friday’s draw to see who they will face in the quarter-finals, but the 31-year-old doesn’t see a preferred opponent in the last eight.

“All rivals are difficult, we can’t choose,” he said. “We have to wait for the draw and see who will be our rival.”

“City, Juventus, Ajax, all are really good. Liverpool have offensive success and they showed at Munich. All of them will be complicated.”

Messi’s star showing saw his club through against Lyon, but the forward remained somewhat unhappy to have seen the Spanish giants lapse in the match after seemingly taking control.

A penalty from the Argentine coupled with Philippe Coutinho ‘s first goal for the club since January had the Spanish outfit in control of Wednesday’s contest. But a 58th minute strike from Lucas Tousart left Barcelona with a few moments of concern before Messi struck again 20 minutes later to put the tie to bed.

“We suffered during a little time, it was unnecessary, because we complicated ourselves the match in a set play game when they haven’t done nothing until this moment,” he said. “Then we scored 3-1 and we were calm again and we found more space to counter attack.

“We look for a victory since the beginning of the match and after the first goal we were more relaxed with the ball and we showed our best version.”