This team never ceases to amaze me. When they are doubted the most, they come up the greatest.

It seems like a lesson I never learn. Despite all the odds not being in favor of the Blaugrana, they still stepped on to the pitch and defeated Arsenal 4-1 at the Camp Nou on Tuesday night.

People talked about the Wolfgang Stark Factor prior to the game. They talked about Barca missing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gerard Piqué, and Carles Puyol; but the one factor that no one thought would make THAT much of a difference.  The difference-making factor was as subtle as a Flea in the room.

Pep Guardiola rubbed his magic bottle of Messi-dependency and what he got was a can of whoop ass as the Gunners were outgunned by the Argentine international.

From the third minute of the match Messi shot on Manuel Almunia's goal and was the only true option on offense.

After Nicklas Bendtner scored the first goal of the match on the counter, Arsenal knew that they had a chance at making history in Catalunya were rekindled; but were quickly extinguished in the 20th minute when Messi scored the first of his four goals.

Messi recovered the rebound on the top of the box and hooked it to the right as Almunia must have thought that he was going the other way and was beat equalizing the affair.

The second goal came in the 37th minute when Éric Abidal's cross was deflected in the box.  Pedro recovers the ball and dishes it off to a dashing Messi in the box, and finishing the play making it 2-1 for the Blaugrana.  One detail, Messi started that play.

Barcelona remained faithful to their usual style and monopolized the ball with a whopping 69% over Arsenal and had Messi was not only the finisher, but he was the link between Xavi and any threat in the Arsenal defensive third and the question mark of having Diego Milito (who was solid today) and Rafa Márquez in the back.

The hat-trick would be sealed just five minutes later when Abidal heads the ball to Messi and he rushed to the goal; chipping the ball over Almunia for the 3-1 score going into the dressing room.

The second half, Barcelona slowed the pace down, although they did have some sporadic threats.  Pedro found himself on a one-on-one with Almunia and the teardrop that he placed over the Arsenal goalkeeper, but the ball went wide.

Arsenal had some opportunities in the second half, including a header from Nicklas Bendtner that hit the woodwork despite being offside.  In the 86th minute Messi would show that he was not satisfied with just a hat-trick and became the sixth player in history to score a poker (that's four goals) in Champions League history- the first to ever do it in the quarterfinals.

This epic performance puts Barca in the semis for a third consecutive year and a step closer to the Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabéu.  Their next obstacle is none other than Inter, who defeated CSKA Moscow 1-0 at Luzhniki Stadium, and advanced on a 2-0 aggregate.   This will be the anticipated rematch for Jose Mourinho as well as for former Blaugrana Samuel Eto'o.

"We lost the game to the best player in the world. For me, Messi is the best player by a distance,"hailed Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger after the match.   '"On the run, he is just unstoppable.  He's the only player that can change direction at such a pace and still be a threat."

In Spain, El Clásico will be now front and center as Barcelona will have their team ready to go for the most part. If there was a dose of bad news, it was the Abidal came out of the match reinjured and will miss El Clásico against Real Madrid.

For Barcelona, they are now 12 wins away from a historic treble-double.

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