**Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger acclaimed Lionel Messi as the world’s best player after his four-goal haul ended the Gunners’ Champions League hopes.**A Messi-inspired Barcelona won 4-1 at the Nou Camp to complete a 6-3 aggregate victory in the quarter-final.
“I believe we lost against a team that is better than us and that has the best player in the world,” said Wenger.
“Once he’s on the run, Messi is unstoppable. He’s the only player who can change direction at such a pace.”
Messi came into the game having already hit three hat-tricks in 2010, but against Arsenal, he went one better and scored four goals in a game for the first time in his career to set up an intriuging meeting with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan.
However, Wenger, who saw his side take a shock lead through Nicklas Bendtner at the Nou Camp, said his side had to take some blame for Messi’s success.
“Over two games, for a team like Arsenal, we conceded cheap goals. They didn’t have to work hard enough,” added Wenger.
“When you have players like Messi, any mistake you can pay for it.”
While Barcelona’s all-round display in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium earned them plenty of plaudits, Messi had been relatively quiet.
Not so at the Nou Camp where the diminutive Argentine terrorised the Arsenal defence, doubling his Champions League goals tally.
Barca manager Pep Guardiola described Messi’s performance as “awesome”, while Gunners keeper Manuel Almunia admitted: "We were beaten by a brilliant player and a brilliant team in general.
"You have to try to anticipate what he’s going to do, but it’s so difficult because he can do what he wants.
“It’s difficult to stop these kind of players. He couldn’t score in the first leg, but he was great tonight.”
Almunia’s team-mate Nicklas Bendtner, who opened the scoring on the night before Messi’s brilliant riposte, added: "Messi scored four fantastic goals and is a phenomenal player in a great team.
“I would rather get beaten by a better team, to be able to say we did what we could, rather than be robbed in the last minute.”
Messi, though, sought to play down his personal contribution.
“What I did isn’t so important but the performance of the team as a whole is what counted,” said the 22-year-old.
“It wasn’t a good start for us but thankfully everything worked out well in the end and I’m just really happy that we won the game.”
One slight criticism of Messi to date has been that he has struggled to take his club form on to the international stage, during Argentina’s unconvincing qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup he was the only ever present but managed only four goals from 18 games.
However, 1978 World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles backed Messi to star in this summer’s tournament, comparing him to Diego Mardona who, as a 21-year-old, left the 1982 tournament in disgrace after being sent off against Brazil, but then captained the 1986 winners.
“Messi is out of this planet, I would say he is so far ahead of the rest of the players playing right now and I would say historically as well. There are not words to describe him,” Ardiles told BBC Radio 5 live.
"In South America we play football a little bit differently, it is very difficult for top, top players with a lot of ability like Messi or Mardona to really put on the same form as they show in Europe. They are much more protected in Europe.
"Argentina had a torrid time qualifying and the team was playing really badly. Because of that Messi couldn’t play his normal game, but his real test is going to be in the World Cup.
"For him, it’s so, so important as he has said he would give up all the medals he has to win the World Cup. It is how he will be judged in the future so I think we’ll see the real Messi.
"I have to say Argentina has such a wonderful squad of players, I’m not saying they are going to be favourites but they are going to be very hard to beat."This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.