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.

Buenos Aires  - Lionel Messi rose to the challenge of wearing the historic number 10 Argentina jersey by leading his side to a comfortable 4-0 win over Venezuela Saturday in Buenos Aires, in Diego Maradona's official debut as Argentine national team coach.

Argentina thus redressed its course in the South American qualifiers towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and now stand second on 19 points from 11 games, four points ahead of leader Paraguay.

London, Mar. 5 : Manchester City is set to make a spectacular 100 million pound summer move for Argentina's Lionel Messi.

City owner Sulaiman Al Fahim, who six weeks ago missed out on Kaka, has personally sanctioned the world-record bid for the Barcelona striker.

Brazilian superstar Kaka turned down a 91 million pound switch to Eastlands to stay at AC Milan.

But Arab billionaire Al Fahim, who is a huge fan of Argentinian football, is determined not to lose out again and has made Messi his No 1 target.

Madrid/Barcelona  - Some 254 million euros, close to 330 million dollars: that is what it would cost to get the talented forward Lionel Messi away from Barcelona in accordance with Spanish law.

Barcelona have set 150 million euros (195 million dollars) as the fee - required by Spanish legislation - for the young Argentine to unilaterally break his contract with his current employer.

Madrid  - Lionel Messi gave one of the best performances of his promising career in Madrid on Tuesday, scoring a handsome hat- trick as Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 in a one-sided cup fifth round, first leg clash.

The Argentine youngster confirmed his status as one of football's brightest stars, at the same time that Barca confirmed their status as the top team in Spain.

Messi missed Barca's 3-1 defeat of Mallorca on Saturday because he returned late from vacation. On Tuesday, he made up for lost time by driving the flat Atletico defence crazy.

Madrid  - Argentina striker Lionel Messi was injured in training Friday, but it was unclear whether it would affect his participation in Barcelona's game against Getafe on Sunday.

"Messi finished the training session with pain in the quadriceps muscle in his right leg," Barcelona's club doctors said in a statement.

"After carrying out different tests, a muscular injury has been discounted. In spite of this, the participation of the player in forthcoming matches depends on the clinical evolution of this problem, in order to avoid a situation of risk."

It was not immediately clear if Messi, 21, would be fit for either Sunday's home game against Getafe, or for Wednesday's Champions League clash away to Sporting Lisbon.