UEFA Champions League: Unfit Messi helps Barcelona into semi final

Lionel Messi comes off the bench against PSG to spark Barcelona into Champions League semifinals.

Barcelona had to risk a half fit Lionel Messi to book a place in the semi final of the UEFA Champions League as they struggled to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night against a resolute PSG side .

The Catalans had to rely on the away goal rule to progress as aggregate scores stood at 3-3 after the two legs.

Javier Pastore, in the 50th minute, shot PSG ahead when he ran clear onto a pass from Ibrahimovic and fired pass Barca’s goalkeeper, Valdes, to put the French giants ahead.

Minutes later Barcelona had to turn to their talisman, Lionel Messi, whose fitness was not top notch but had enough in him to engineer the invaluable equalizer for his team.

Messi combined well with Pedro and Villa to rescue Barcelona from a quarter final exit with a 75th equaliser.

In the other fixture, the recently crowned Bundesliga Champions, Bayern Munich, secured passage into semi final in style after topping up on their 2-0 first leg win over Italian Champions, Juventus, with a 2-0 win in the reverse tie.

Mario Mandzukic found the back of the net with a headed goal from close range and then Claudio Pizzaro added a second deep in the game, in injury time to wrap the scores 4-0 aggregate.

The roster of teams in the semi finals are evenly match with two Spanish teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona; and two German teams, Dortmund and Bayern, still in the race for Europe’s top prize in club football.