Messi opened the scoring after two minutes and eight seconds, the quickest goal of his career, slipping the ball through Thibaut Courtois' legs from a tight angle.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Monaco owe most of their recent success to their young guns, but when they face Manchester City looking to overturn a two-goal deficit in their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday, they will turn to a more experienced player in Radamel Falcao.
Manchester City, who crushed Gladbach 4-0 at home in September, are in second place in the group on seven points, three ahead of the Germans, and can wrap up qualification with victory in Germany.
Arsenal and Barcelona each got a taste of their own medicine on Wednesday but it was the Londoners who recovered from what looked a terminal condition to register a remarkable 2-1 comeback win in the Champions League last-16 first leg.
PSG have never reached the semi-finals of the Champions League
Manchester United ended their one-year Champions League hiatus in emphatic style when Wayne Rooney struck a hat-trick in a 4-0 destruction of Club Bruges that sent the three-times winners through 7-1 on aggregate on Wednesday.
Paris St Germain are stronger than last season and he is in the best shape of his life, yet Zlatan Ibrahimovic says experienced Chelsea are the hot favourites in the Champions League quarter-final against the French champions.
A summary of Wednesday's action in the Champions League quarter-finals first leg.
Murali Vijay and Mike Hussey cracked a sparkling half-century each as Chennai Super Kings were crowned the Champions League Twenty20 winners with their eight-wicket victory over Warriors in Johannesburg on Sunday.
European champions Real Madrid head to rampaging Borussia Dortmund for their Champions League Group F game on Tuesday in a frazzled state with their buoyant start to the season having been punctured by successive La Liga draws.
Roundup of the matches being held across major football leagues in Europe on Sunday
Liverpool will be without forwards Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino when they face Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final as they look to overturn a 3-0 deficit, manager Juergen Klopp said on Monday.
Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy has said the club will look to enjoy competing against Europe's elite in their Champions League debut. The English champions were drawn in Group G along with Porto, Club Bruges and FC Copenhagen in the Champions League after winning the English top-flight title for the first time in their history.
Arsenal and Galatasaray are facing disciplinary action after supporters of the Turkish club lit red flares and threw them onto the pitch, briefly holding up play, in their Champions League group match on Wednesday.
Monaco and Chelsea kick-off the semi-finals off the Champions League this evening, with both coaches declaring there are no favourites.\n\n
With the rescheduling of the Champions Trophy by the International Cricket Council, the second edition of the Champions League Twenty20 next year has been postponed by two weeks. The second edition of the Champions League Twenty20 was scheduled to be held from September 25 to October 10 next year but it will now be held from October 10 to 23 after the ICC rescheduled the Champions Trophy from September 24 to October 5, 2009.
Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are all preparing for sudden-death Champions League games.
Since winning 2-1 at home to Wolfsburg in September, United have scored only twice in three Champions League games. In the Premier League the record is five goals in the last six games.
Real Madrid top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo's participation against Borussia Dortmund in Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg is still in doubt with the player nursing a knee problem, coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Monday.
All the action from La Liga and Serie A matches played on Monday
The second edition of the Champions League Twenty20 would be held at venues in South Africa -- Wanderers in Johannesburg, St Georges Park in Port Elizabeth, Kingsmead in Durban and Centurion Park in Centurion, it was announced on Thursday.
Reigning champions City are also involved in a separate independent hearing into the club's alleged breaches of Premier League financial regulations which began in September, with a verdict expected some time before the end of the current season.
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola is determined to win the Champions League for a third time but will not be judged a failure even if he leaves at the end of the season without lifting Europe's biggest prize again.
Anthony Martial went from villain to hero as his second-half equaliser earned Manchester United a deserved point in a 1-1 draw against CSKA Moscow in Champions League Group B on Wednesday.
England striker Jamie Vardy says Leicester City have no intention of treating the Champions League as some sort of belated Premier League victory parade, and are ready to add another chapter to last season's stunning success story.
Chelsea captain John Terry has been ruled out of Tuesday's Champions League clash with Paris St Germain after failing to recover from injury, the Premier League club said.
Goals from Marcel Desailly and Jesper Gronkjaer earned Chelsea a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Premier League.
Brazilian forward Derlei Silva scored a second-half penalty to send Porto into the final with a 1-0 aggregate victory over Deportivo Coruna.
Two years on from their defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League final, Atletico Madrid are back on the same stage against the same rival - wiser and determined not to be haunted by the memories of Lisbon.
Kylian Mbappe said he has "no problems" with manager Luis Enrique after playing the full 90 minutes for Paris St Germain on Tuesday for the first time since Feb. 14, the forward scoring both goals in their 2-1 Champions League win at Real Sociedad.
Images from the Champions League round of 16 second leg matches played on Tuesday
IMAGES from the UEFA Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg matches played on Tuesday
Tottenham Hotspur guaranteed a top-four finish in the Premier League when Peter Crouch's late header secured a gutsy 1-0 win at Manchester City on Wednesday.
The thousands of Barcelona and Juventus fans streaming into Berlin's Olympic Stadium for the Champions League final later on Saturday were confident the showpiece would knock the FIFA scandal off the front pages and out of people's minds.
Real Madrid have avoided defeat in their last 41 LaLiga games, the second best streak by a team in the competition's history.
Gautam Gambhir leads one of the star-studded line-ups in the Champions League Twenty20. The Delhi Daredevils' line-up boasts of the two most dangerous batsmen in world cricket -- Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virender Sehwag.
Real Madrid are hoping the fit-again Cristiano Ronaldo can lead them into the Champions League final although strike partner Karim Benzema remains a doubt for Wednesday's return match with Manchester City.
Lionel Messi's brilliance sent holders Barcelona through to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 4-0 dismantling of VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday.
The first legs will be on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 April, with the returns on May 1 and 2.
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