UEFA YOUTH LEAGUE: Royal Antwerp 0–3 FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona have ended the UEFA Youth League group stage with a placid 3-0 win at Royal Antwerp but the three points served for nothing as Porto were 2-0 victors in their own game with Shakhtar Donetsk and hence top Group H. Barça instead have to settle for second, which is still enough to advance as well, but they will need to negotiate a playoff in order to go into the draw for the last sixteen.

Great start

Antwerp threatened first and it took a top save from Aáron Alonso to avoid an early Belgian goal, but Barça soon took the reins of the encounter, with Hugo Alba having one great chance before the opener finally came in the 17th minute when Marc Bernal played Hugo Alba through into the kind of position where he couldn't fail to score.

Barça kept pressing forward and doubled their lead from a truly fabulous Dani Rodríguez free kick on 25 minutes.

Dominant display

Despite the setback of losing Brian Fariñas to injury, Barça's dominance became more and more utter, and Marc Bernal had the best of many chances when his header was saved.

A third goal looked inevitable, but it didn't actually come until the third minute of injury time when a sweet double act between Juan Hernández and Óscar Gistau finished with the latter finding the net.

MATCH STATS

Royal Antwerp, 0
Barça, 3

Royal Antwerp: Niels Devalckeneer; Semm Renders (Jarne Lievens, min. 77), Kyano Delaporte, Benjamin Alou Issa, Eran Tuypens; Nolhan Courtens, Milo Hortemans, Andreas Verstraeten (Mats Van Helden, min. 83); Ignace Abdelhamid (Jeff Godelaine, min. 60), Gerard Vandeplas, Youssef Hamdaoui

Barça: Aáron Alonso; Joan Anaya, Eman Kospo, Héctor Rangel, Xavi Espart; Marc Bernal (Landry Farré, min. 80), Brian Fariñas (Quim Junyent, min. 53), Cristo Muñoz (Juan Hernández, min. 74); Dani Rodríguez (Óscar Gistau, min. 74), Hugo Alba (Pau Prim, min. 74), Arnau Pradas

Goals: 0-1 (Hugo Alba, min. 17), 0-2 (Dani Rodríguez, min. 25), 0-3 (Juan Hernández, min. 93)

Referees: Ivo Torres, Rafael Morim, Yannick Mentz, Michiel Allaerts. Yellows for Verstraeten & Horemans (Royal Antwerp) and Landry Farré (Barça)