Messi didn’t waste any time opening Barca’s account in the Nou Camp as the Argentine scored after just 16 minutes and Barcelona followed his example taking to Twitter moments after the final whistle.
Minutes after Barcelona had secured their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League, the club’s official Twitter account posted a picture of Messi with the caption “Messi at the wheel”.
The Catalan Giants were poking fun at United fans current
It didn’t take long for the song to hit the terraces at Old Trafford as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer impressed fans with how he revitalised the players and the atmosphere at the club.
However, their European dreams came to an abrupt end over the course of the two legs.
United had to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the first leg and it was crucial they scored the opening goal in Spain.
Marcus Rashford nearly gave the visitors a perfect start, but his shot cannoned off the bar after just 40 seconds.
Messi put the hosts ahead with a sublime curling shot from 20 yards and this was followed up by a mistake by De Gea after 20 minutes.
A weak shot from Messi from outside the box found its way under the Spaniard’s body to trickle into the net and in doing so gave United a mountain to climb.
Any hopes of a comeback were ended when Philippe Coutinho added a spectacular curling effort in from outside the area in the second half.
Solskjaer’s men were convincingly beaten by Barcelona and after the game the United boss was full of praise for Messi.
“I have to say Lionel Messi is top quality and he was the difference of course. At 2-0 it was game over,” he said.
“He’s different class, he and Cristiano Ronaldo are the best players of the last decade, everyone agrees on that one.
“Messi showed his quality.
“We have to aspire to get to that level of Barcelona, we can get there but we have loads of work to do.
“If we want to get back to Man Utd’s true level, true traditions, we have to challenge Barcelona.
“They were a couple of levels above over the two games. We want to play these games again next year so we have a massive week coming up.
“There is no point dwelling on what could have been, we have to focus on that week.”
United are still in the hunt for a Champions League qualifying spot and currently find themselves in 6th in the league but only three points of 3rd placed Tottenham.
Next up for the Red Devils is a trip to Goodison Park to face Everton on Sunday.