Barcelona  - Barcelona have one foot in the semi-finals of the Champions League after thrashing Bayern Munich 4-0 on Wednesday in a one-sided quarter-final first leg.

Barca turned in the performance of the European season to put brittle Bayern to the sword, thus confirming their candidacy for the continental crown.

Jurgen Klinsmann's side carried on from where they left off in Wolfsburg on Saturday, where they lost 5-1 - feeble in defence and swamped in midfield.

Star of the show in a delighted Camp Nou was Lionel Messi, who put Barca on the road to the semis with two handsome early goals.

Barca tore into Bayern from the start and turned in the kind of scintillating first-half display that has become almost routine in La Liga this season.

Messi made it 1-0 after nine minutes with a left-foot drive, after being set up by the lively Samuel Eto'o.

Just three minutes later Messi returned the compliment by setting up Eto'o to make it 2-0 with a low shot.

Messi had a good penalty claim turned down, then made it 3-0 in the 39th minute by turning in a perfect centre from Thierry Henry.

Henry, at his best level since leaving Arsenal in 2007, completed the rout just before half-time after being set up by Eto'o.

Understandably, Barca dropped their rhythm in the second half, hoping for Bayern to come out of their shell and leave gaps at the back.

Messi almost completed his hat-trick on the hour, but Bayern keeper Hans-Jorg Butt managed to push his blistering shot onto the crossbar. At the other end, Barca captain Carles Puyol did well to clear a Ze Roberto effort off the line. (dpa)