Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi described goalkeeper Joe Hart as a
"phenomenon" following his performance in Manchester City's 1-0 UEFA
Champions League defeat at Camp Nou.
Ivan Rakitic
scored the only goal as Barca secured a 3-1 aggregate win on Wednesday,
but the margin could have been greater had it not been for the heroics
of the England number one - who saved a late penalty from Messi in the
first leg last month.
Hart said it was an "honour"
to pit his wits against Messi during a post-match interview, and the
Argentina captain returned the praise with a glowing assessment of his
opponent's display.
"Joe Hart had an absolutely
fantastic game," Messi told UEFA.com. "I already knew he was a top
keeper, but it was impressive in this performance how he just stopped
everything that came his way, with either his hands or his body - he is a
phenomenon.
"The fortunate thing, given all that,
was we managed to get through the tie, which was all we wanted, so that
we could be in Friday's quarter-final draw.
"These
nights are just so tremendous to play in and wonderful for the public to
watch, especially when the game is played like this.
"The opposition was full of great players and both teams just try to play really good, open football.
"Both City and Barcelona wanted to be on the ball, to do things with it, and it ended up as a pretty spectacular game."
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