Lionel Messi and Barcelona had excellent starts to the Champions League last night with Manchester United and Inter Milan struggling in their first games in Europe.

The Argentine, like last season, treated Europe’s blue riband club competition as his personal playground, scoring two classy goals before missing a penalty as Barca recovered from an early shock to thrash visiting Panathinaikos 5-1 in Group D.

Inter took the lead but then had to come from behind to draw 2-2 at Dutch debutants Twente Enschede in Group A with the Italians losing forward Goran Pandev to a knee injury.

A much-changed Manchester United could find no way past obdurate Scottish visitors Rangers in Group C, drawing 0-0 in a game overshadowed by a serious ankle injury to Antonio Valencia.

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Three days after winning the La Liga title Barcelona have snapped up Valencia striker David Villa for €40 million.

After a board meeting at Valencia in the morning, their president Manuel Llorente said they had accepted Barca’s offer for the striker who scored 21 league goals last season to finish his fifth consecutive campaign as the club’s top scorer.

“We have sold David Villa to Barcelona for 40 million euros,” he told a news conference at the Mestalla.

On the international stage, Villa is Spain’s second highest scorer with 36 goals from 55 matches, eight short of Raul’s record, and he will be spearheading Spain’s World Cup campaign in South Africa next month.

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Inter Milan reached the Champions League final last night by beating Barcelona 3 – 2 on aggregate after having to play with only 10 men for more than an hour.

After losing last week’s semi-final first leg in Milan 3-1, Barca’s hopes of meeting Bayern Munich in Madrid on May 22 were lifted when Inter defender Thiago Motta clashed with Sergio Busquets in the 28th minute and was sent off.

The home fans filled the vast Nou Camp arena with noise and Barca dominated possession but struggled to create clear chances.

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Inter Milan made a brilliant comeback from 0 – 1 down to to beat title holders Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League semifinal first leg at the San Siro on Tuesday.

Goals from Wesley Sneijder, Maicon and Diego Milito extinguished Pedro’s opener for Barca and sent the nerazzuri faithful into raptures ahead of next week’s second leg at Camp Nou.

It was a tactical masterclass from Jose Mourinho as his team wiped out memories of the footballing lessons Barca gave them in the group stages back in September and November.

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was magnanimous in defeat and refused to blame the team’s 14-hour coach journey for the loss.

“This can happen, especially when you’re playing in the semifinal of the Champions League and against Inter Milan,” he said.

“Of course it’s not ideal losing like this but we can still do it.

“The result is not good, we gave away too many balls, we can do better. This wasn’t our best game and Inter don’t make it easy for you to play.

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Log co-leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid will both be missing key players in their Spanish La Liga match tonight.

Madrid will be without Brazil playmaker Kaka, and Barcelona will be missing striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Kaka is still hampered by a groin injury while Ibrahimovic has failed to recover from a calf problem.

Both clubs have 77 points with eight games left to play.

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini has called on his team to show no fear as it looks to overturn a three-game losing streak against the defending champions.

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Lionel Messi was on top form again at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night when Barcelona crushed Arsenal 4 – 1 in their Champions League encounter.

You know a player is very good when the opposition’s manager hits world headline praising him. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal’s manger is singing Lionel Messi’s praises at the top of his voice this morning in spite of the fact that the Argentinian national wiped his team out of the Champions league single handedly with a crushing 4 -1  victory.

The night started off OK for Arsenal when Nicklas Bendtner fired the Gunners into a shock lead on 18 minutes. But their joy was short-lived as Messi struck a brilliant 21-minute hat-trick, before compounding Arsenal’s misery with a fourth late on.

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Arsenal’s European dream alive by Cesc Fabregas after the Gunners came from 2-0 down to draw the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona at Emirates Stadium last night.

The Spaniards had lived up to their billing as favourites following a blistering start and a second-half double from Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked to have all but killed off the tie.

However, Theo Walcott came off the bench to pull a goal back before Fabregas – who will miss the second leg at his old club after being booked – smashed in a late penalty after Carles Puyol was sent off for fouling the midfielder in the box.

While Barcelona will still be favourites to progress, Arsene Wenger’s young side again showed great character and could yet prove their doubters wrong once more with a similarly courageous display in the Nou Camp.

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