Barça 1 Basle 1

Barça became the first team to qualify for the last sixteen of the Champions League after a disappointing home draw with Basle. It was a bad night for Barça and the worst of it was an injury to Andres Iniesta, first reports say he has torn a muscle in his right thigh and could be out for six weeks if not more.

Barça played as though they believed they would win just by stepping on the pitch, and it repeats an old leesen in football that it doesn't matter how much better your players are than the opposition you need to have the hunger to win to go with the talent. There was a big difference in the team attitude compared to Saturday's win at Malaga, and despite playing most of the game in Basle's half of the pitch there was a lack of punch in attack and the Basle keeper Costanzo was rarely tested. In the first half Barça had eleven shots with seven on target but the only difficult save from the Argentinian keeper came when Thierry Henry flicked on Sylvinho's inswinging free kick from the right.

With Messi, Xavi and Eto'o all left on the bench, it was a night to consider how much these three mean to us. Victor Sanchez worked hard in midfield but he is no Xavi when it comes to spotting the killer pass. Hleb played in Messi's position and while he maybe capable of dribbling past a player or two, the lack of penetration seems to be a mark of his game, I am beginning to see why he scored so few goals at Arsenal: does he ever shoot? We can also say that while Bojan has a good goalscoring record it is impossible to expect him to be as lethal as Samuel Eto'o. The young striker had a disappointing game despite working hard.

Thierry Henry played most of the game at centre forward and I actually thought he had one of his better games. He works much harder than he did last season, but his finishing was still not good. he was also fortunate not to get sent off in the 38th minute when he swung an arm which caught Basle player Carlitos in the face with the referee just yards away. It was in no way a dirty game today and there really was no need for such action from a player of Henry's experience.

As the game neared the hour mark, Pep Guardiola decided to bring on Xavi and Messi in place of Victor Sanchez and Bojan. Perhaps Pep was hoping to wake up the crowd which was very quiet tonight, the only noise that came through on the TV had come from the Swiss fans. Whatever, the effect of the substitutions was immediate. With only two minutes on the pitch Messi collected the ball, sent a vertical pass into centre-forward Henry who laid off a neat wall pass which Messi ran onto before picking his spot and slotting the ball home from the edge of the area. He made it look so simple you had to wonder what the others had been doing out there for the last hour. I was actually hoping Guardiola would then immediately take Messi off as if to say "thanks very much, job done, you can go home now".

But Messi stayed on and later showed he is human by losing out to the defence on a couple of other ocassions. Eto'o came on for the injured Iniesta, but it seemed that gradually the effect of the first double substitution wore off. The team again relaxed and Basle took advantage in the 82nd minute when Derdiyok took advantage of a momentary lapse in marking from Marquez to splendidly hook home a cross from the right , giving Valdés no chance. This came just two minutes after Piqué should have scored with a far post header but with the goal at his mercy he headed against the post. 

Xavi had a couple of efforts with free kicks, the first produced a good save from Costanzo and then in injury time he sent another one wide. It was probably too much to expect the miracle and Barça thus surrender their eleven-game winning streak. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as I would much rather draw this game than one in the league; hopefully it will serve as a lesson to the players that they need to play with the right attitude every week if they want success at the end of the season. It also proves that despite Messi's genius and apparent magic wand, not even he can guarantee that the team will be victorious.

Barça: Valdés 6; Puyol 6.5, Marquez 6, Piqué 5.5, Sylvinho 6; Victor Sanchez 5.5 (Xavi m59, 6.5), Busquets 6, Iniesta 6.5 (Eto'o m66, 5.5); Hleb 5.5, Henry 6.5, Bojan 5.5 (Messi m59, 7).

Goals: m62 Messi 1-0, m82 Derdiyok 1-1.

Attendance: 49,479