Messi leads Barca to 3-1 win over Dortmund in 700th match

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Lionel Messi scored one goal and set up two more in his 700th game for Barcelona to ensure the Spanish club reached the Champions League’s knockout rounds with a 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.

Messi fed Luis Suárez to open the scoring at Camp Nou in the 29th minute before his strike partner returned the assist for the Argentina star to add a goal of his own moments later.

Messi then led a counterattack and played substitute Antoine Griezmann through on goal to put the result beyond doubt in the 67th.

Dortmund’s halftime substitute Jadon Sancho pulled one back in the 77th and almost got a second goal when Marc-Andre ter Stegen pushed his shot onto his post.

In addition to his goals and assist, Messi repeatedly wowed the home crowd by regularly dribbling past Dortmund’s helpless defenders. He also went close to another goal when he curled a free kick off the crossbar.

Messi took his club-record tally to 613 goals as he closed in on Xavi Hernández’s all-time appearance milestone of 767 matches for the Spanish club. The Argentine has 114 goals in Europe’s top-tier tournament.

Barcelona has 11 points in Group F and secured top spot with one game remaining. Dortmund has seven, but is behind Inter Milan on goal difference after the Italian team won 3-1 at Slavia Prague. Prague has two points.

Only the top two teams advance. The third-place finisher goes to the Europa League.

Ernesto Valverde’s team extended its competition record to 35 consecutive home matches without a defeat going back to 2013.

Dortmund had outplayed Barcelona in Germany in their first meeting in September, when Ter Stegen had to save a penalty by Marco Reus to salvage a point from a 0-0 draw.

On Wednesday, Lucien Favre’s Dortmund made a promising start when Ivan Rakitic, who was making his first start in two months for Barcelona, lost the ball and allowed Dortmund to mount a quick counterattack. Barcelona needed Samuel Umtiti to clear a shot from Nico Schulz.

But with Dortmund’s slack defense giving Messi all the space and time he could want, Barcelona had little trouble imposing its will.

Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele had to be replaced with a right thigh injury in the 25th, adding to the former Dortmund player’s long list of injuries since joining the five-time European champions three seasons ago.

After replacing Dembele, Griezmann started a move that led to Barcelona’s first goal. Messi continued it when, instead of firing on goal as the defense expected, he slipped a pass through for the unmarked Suárez to drive between the legs of goalie Roman Burki.

Suárez became the playmaker four minutes later after Mats Hummels made a poor pass directly to Sergio Busquets. Seconds later Suárez found Messi all alone to slot a left-footed shot into the far corner of the net and double the lead.

Favre sent on Sancho to try to spark his team’s attack. But he would only get his goal after Messi had helped Griezmann to put the result beyond doubt.

Griezmann forced a save from Burki two minutes after the restart. After Julian Brandt drew a save from Ter Stegen in a rare attack by the visitors, Messi played a perfectly-weighted pass to meet Griezmann in stride on a counterattack. The France forward did the rest by firing a low shot past Burke.

Sancho’s goal was the one moment of class from Dortmund. The English forward cut back before firing around his marker Junior Firpo into the top corner. He then forced Ter Stegen into stretching to redirect another of his shots just enough so it met the upright.

___

More AP soccer https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports