Barcelona booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League after a 3-0 win against Panathinaikos.
Greeks' European campaign comes to an end
Barcelona booked their place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League as group winners after a comfortable 3-0 away win against Panathinaikos.
A draw would not have been enough for the La Liga champions following Rubin Kazan's victory over FC Copenhagen earlier on Wednesday evening, but a Pedro brace and Lionel Messi's 150th goal for the club sealed their safe passage.
Djibril Cisse had a glorious chance to break the deadlock in the 20th minute but he fired his effort straight at Victor Valdes when one-on-one.
And Barca made him pay just seven minutes later as Pedro latched onto a Dani Alves pass to slot home from a tight angle, while Messi started and finished a wonderful move in the 62nd minute.
Pedro added to his tally following another fine move seven minutes later, meaning Pana will now finish rock bottom of Group D, crashing out of Europe this term while the Catalans continue on their road to Wembley.
The result could have been so different had the Greeks opened the scoring, and they had a great opportunity to do so through Cisse.
Dominant
Before then the visitors had been dominant in possession, although Pana's defending was disciplined and steadfast meaning Barca could not create a clear-cut chance despite their pressure.
Indeed, they nearly went to sleep in the sixth minute when goalkeeper Victor Valdes and Gerard Pique got in a mix-up, as neither took decisive action to clear the danger inside the area with Luis Garcia ready to pounce.
If that was a warning sign, then Cisse's miss was a sure-fire signal to the Spaniards. The Frenchman was played in through the middle and initially checked his run, expecting the offside flag to go up, but when nothing was given he continued into the box and hit a powerful effort which was saved well by Valdes.
It was the closest Pana came to getting on the scoresheet in the entire encounter and they were made to pay soon later.
Pedro punished the home side as slack defending allowed him to cut into the right side of the area after being slid in by Alves, and he found the net with a precise finish into the far corner.
Messi continued to pull the strings and hit the top of the wall with a free-kick after he was felled outside the area by Gilberto Silva, before Pedro and Villa had efforts well saved by Alexandros Tzorvas late on in the first-half.
Panathinaikos made a change at the break as Stergos Marinos was replaced by Elini Dimoutsos, but they found it difficult to find a way back into the match.
Barca continued to dominate possession and Adriano forced a fine save out of Tzorvas in the 52nd minute, as he cut inside from the left flank and tried a right-foot curler into the top corner only for the keeper to claw it away at the last.
Milestone
Soon it was 2-0 as the magician Messi started a flowing, passing move inside the Greeks' half, before darting into the box to knock in an Adriano pull-back from close range - netting his 150th goal for the club.
If that was a special goal then the third was equal to it, as Pedro bagged his second of the night with another effort from inside the area after Alves chipped a fine ball over for Andres Iniesta who picked out the striker with consummate ease.
The game was temporarily paused in the 81st minute as Italian referee Gianluca Rocchi was concerned about smoke and noise from fireworks inside the ground, but the home fans were not going to spoil the Barca party.
| Panathinaikos |
Team Statistics |
Barcelona |
| 0 |
Goals |
3 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
1 |
| 1 |
Shots on Target |
9 |
| 2 |
Shots off Target |
2 |
| 0 |
Blocked Shots |
5 |
| 1 |
Corners |
5 |
| 11 |
Fouls |
11 |
| 9 |
Offsides |
5 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
1 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 73.9 |
Passing Success |
93 |
| 31 |
Tackles |
16 |
| 74.2 |
Tackles Success |
75 |
| 20.9 |
Possession |
79.1 |
| 33.2 |
Territorial Advantage |
66.8 |
|
