Barcelona player ratings: Messi fails to turn up in Roma debacle
Juan Jiménez offers a scathing assessment of Barcelona's display after a 3-0 defeat to Roma sent them crashing out of the Champions League.
Marc-André ter Stegen:
When coming out of his goalmouth, the old question marks resurfaced. On Roma's first goal, he seemed to think Jordi Alba or Samuel Umtiti would get there, remained rooted to the spot, and Edin Dzeko scored. Guessed right on Daniele de Rossi's penalty, but was powerless to keep it out.
Nelson Semedo:
Faced with the pressing of Radja Nainggolan and Aleksandar Kolarov, he struggled massively whenever Barcelona sought to bring the ball out through him.
Gerard Piqué:
Totally dominated by Dzeko, not only when he brought the Bosnian down for the penalty, but in every duel between the pair. The defender seemed unusually bereft of confidence.
Samuel Umtiti:
Poor. Umtiti appeared overcome by events in Rome. One of his very worst nights as a Barcelona player.
Jordi Alba:
The left-back, whose defensive understanding with Umtiti went to pieces at times, went to sleep for Roma's first goal. He only came to life in the final few minutes.
Sergi Roberto:
Deployed in midfield by Ernesto Valverde, he threatened the Roma goal in the opening minutes and - unlike most of his team-mates - at least sought to compete.
Sergio Busquets:
Not at 100%, he could not get a foothold on a game in which Nainggolan, Kevin Strootman and De Rossi devoured the Barcelona midfield.
Andrés Iniesta:
This could well prove the saddest of Champions League swansongs. Iniesta gave an extremely poor performance, failing to even get close to the intensity of Roma's engine room.
Ivan Rakitic:
Attempted to bring a measure of order to a Barça side at sixes and sevens, but it proved an impossible task.
Lionel Messi:
Anonymous. You expect so much more from him on nights like this. He had a couple of moments late on, but having gone out there to watch the time go by, it's little surprise he wasn't able to suddenly snap into action and clean up the mess. He simply didn't turn up.
Luis Suárez:
Fought hard, but to little effect, and scarcely had a scoring chance worth mentioning. However, the Uruguayan wasn't the chief culprit for Barça's debacle.
Substitutes:
Valverde brought on Andrés Gomes, who was about 1,000 revs below what was needed, and Paco Alcácer and Ousmane Dembélé, who were thrown on in the wake of Roma's decisive third goal. It was too little, too late.
