Messi leads Barça to Atlante victory

Barcelona remain on course to win the World Club Championship as Leo Messi came off the bench to help them on their way to a 3-1 win over the Mexicans’ Atlante.
Possibly due to their tiring schedule Barça were slow to start and Atlante took full advantage with their lively winger Rojas sweeping the ball home after four minutes with Carles Puyol and Rafa Marquez only able to watch.
But this Barça side under Pep Guardiola has shown many times it’s resilience and come back from a goal down. They did it memorably against Chelsea last season and they did it last week against Dynamo Kiev and it is due to the great confidence in their style of football that in the end it will work. Against Atlante they began to probe the Mexicans’ defence and found a way back into the match through Sergio Busquets.
Messi, still recovering from injury, began the game on the bench but as Barça sought a winner, Guardiola turned to the Balon d’or winner and he answered with his first touches of the ball. He rounded the keeper and slipped it home.
With Barça in the ascendency and Atlante forced to attack, the Catalans were able to quickly finish off the match with Pedro scoring the third and make history in the process by becoming the only player ever to score in six different competitions in one year.
“Sometimes things don’t happen as planned and that was the case at the start of the match but we kept faithful to our style and came out on top,” said Puyol after the game.
Barça are now in the final where they will face Estudiantes on Thursday looking for their first ever win in this competition having failed previously in 1992 and 2006. Iniesta though will be missing after picking up a hamstring strain against Atlante.