A PERFORMANCE THAT WENT AROUND THE WORLD

Five goals not mark a player each day. Not in the knockout stages of the Champions. It is therefore normal that this Thursday the name of Leo Messi has been the talk of many people throughout the world. 

And there have been cases especially curious.One is, without doubt, the State Department spokesman in the United States. His name is Mike Hammer and his mother lives in Madrid.Therefore, on Thursday gave a press conference at the White House in Spanish for the many correspondents in Spain and Latin America that follow the information in Wasingthon. At one point during the press conference, as reported by the correspondent of TVE in the U.S., Lorenzo Mila, Hammer acknowledged that "I am from Real Madrid, but I congratulate Messi".

FC Barcelona 3 - 0 Racing | Highlights of the last match in Camp Nou

Adrian, possible target of Barca

As reported daily AS on Saturday, Barca closely follows the Asturian, 24 years old. And not alone, because the same happens with other heavyweights on the continent, like Manchester City.

The clause of Adrian is very affordable: 18 million euros. And to avoid surprises, Atletico have already put to work for rising it.

Adrian came to Atletico last summer from Deportivo La Coruna. Atletico did not have to pay a euro by transfer, since the contract was over. Their adaptation to the team has been very rapid.

Xavi Hernandez - Best of 2012

Cristian Tello vs Bayer Leverkusen

FC Barcelona humiliates Bayer Leverkusen at Camp Nou

Robin Dutt: Messi is from another Galaxy

“Though we played Barcelona, this loss really hurts. Let’s face it, they were simply too strong. Criticism will come and we have to live with it. We weren’t at our best and if you play Barcelona, you need to have a perfect day. We did not give up in the second half, but they were simply too strong. When it was 2-0, they realised they could relax and have fun with the ball and that’s what they did. We tried to keep up, but they punished us. That can happen against an opponent like Barcelona.”

“Of course, the players always try to stay with their opposing player, but today that was impossible. We were late too often. After this loss we should not bring the whole of German football in to question. Barcelona can play like that against almost every team from every league. It will be easy to forget about this game; we are all professionals. The Champions League is one thing, the Bundesliga another.”

“Barcelona has an extraordinary quality and the question is, ‘how can you achieve such a level?’ We’ll have to find out. I congratulated Guardiola and told him that I’m sure his team will be in the Champions League final this year again. They use space so well and their build-up play is superb.”

“If you are a fan, you must be deeply impressed by Messi today, but me as a coach, I did hope for one of his bad days. There are scarcely words to describe the way Messi plays. Barcelona are the best team in the world even without Messi but with him they are almost in another galaxy.”

“They have it all, technique, tactics and team spirit. A perfect performance.”

“We didn’t need this evening to prove that Barcelona are the best team that I have ever seen play. I think that all the other teams on the continent have a great deal of work to do before they can reach the same level.”