Once again, Barcelona look to have landed a knockout blow on Arsenal’s Champions League hopes.
Despite matching the European champions for the first half, Lionel Messi (predictably) opened the scoring for Barca after the break.
Arsene Wenger’s response to going a goal behind was to make a couple of changes. After sending Danny Welbeck on to the field, he also swapped Francis Coquelin for Mathieu Flamini.
Given his playing style, it’s likely that Wenger didn’t expect much of an impact from Flamini in an attacking sense. Instead, the Frenchman would just come on, sit in front of the Arsenal backline and make sure Barca didn’t get another one…
Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan.
Within minutes of his arrival, Flamini tripped Messi inside the Arsenal box – allowing the Argentine to add his second from the spot.
As shown by this tweet from @Onedannetts, Flamini’s unwanted impact was almost instant…
https://twitter.com/Onedannetts/status/702243393515208705
