Arsenal 0 Barcelona 2: Messi at the double as Gunners crumble late on

ARSENAL hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League are currently hanging by a th

The north Londoners suffered a 2-0 defeat to reigning European champions Barcelona thanks to a brace from Lionel Messi.

Arsenal, who went into the contest on the back of a disappointing 0-0 draw against Championship side Hull, started the game brightly and looked dangerous in the opening exchanges.

But the visitors weathered the early storm and slowly began to take control of the game.

Arsene Wenger's men surrendered the lionshare of possession to the visitors and were forced to play at the Catalan's pace.

But they almost took the lead in the 21st minute through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The England international had a great chance to give his side the lead after the ball fell to him inside the six-yard box.

However, he failed to get the ball out of his feet and fired a tame shot straight at Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Barca continued to dominate and nearly took the lead before the half-time interval through Luis Suarez when the Uruguay international got on the end of a cross from Dani Alves.

However, he somehow managed to steer his header wide of Petr Cech's right-hand post from just inside the six-yard box.

Luis Enrique's men started the second-half a lot better than they began the first and once again dictated the pace of the game.

And they nearly took the lead in the 47th minute through Neymar, who forced a good save from Cech.

The Gunners, whose next outing is a league game against Manchester United, continued to withstand the constant Barca pressure and nearly found themselves in front in the 59th minute when Olivier Giroud got on the end of a cross from Aaron Ramsey.

But unfortunately for him, and the Emirates faithful, Ter Stegen produced a world-class save to keep the scores level.

Barca cranked up the heat after Ter Stegen's wonder save and put the back-to-back FA Cup winners under an unbelievable amount of pressure.

And they finally breached the Gunners' defence in the 72nd minute when Lionel Messi rounded off a swift counter-attack with a tap in from just inside the 18-yard-box.

And things went from bad to worse 11 minutes later when second-half substitute Mathieu Flamini fouled Messi in the box and a penalty was awarded.

Messi, who had a relatively quiet game, stepped up to take the spot-kick and cooly dispatched the ball past Cech.

Neymar nearly added a third in added in time but saw his header acrobatically saved by Cech.