CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINALS

Barcelona will travel to Rome knowing that their Italian opponents will need an extraordinary turnaround next Tuesday. Roma haven’t been in a European Cup final since 1984 and it seems that their long wait will go on after Luis Suarez’s late goal gave Barcelona a three-goal lead to take into the second leg. That should be too big a hurdle for Roma to overcome. Yet there could have been a very different feel. Roma were in it after Edin Dzeko made it 3-1 near the end, only for a dreadful error from Federico Fazio to gift a goal to Suarez, who had been pretty poor for most of the night. That twist had a feeling of finality to it. Barcelona didn’t flow and Lionel Messi didn’t score, but they ruthlessly capitalised on moments of good fortune and will be confident of going through.