Barcelona bowed out of the Champions League after they were held to a 0-0 draw in their Champions League quarter-final second-leg tie against Juventus at the Nou Camp on Wednesday night, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.

Luis Enrique made two changes to the side that were put to the sword at the Juventus Stadium just over a week ago. He brought in Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic in place of Javier Mascherano and Jeremy Mathieu, while Juventus fielded the same squad that gave Barcelona a 3-0 drubbing.

Barcelona made their attacking intentions clear from the offset, but it was the Catalan outfit who were almost behind as early as the fourth minute when a swift counter-attacking move gave Gonzalo Higuain some space in the area, but the forward blasted his effort over the crossbar.

Lionel Messi should have given his side the lead when he latched on to Luis Suarez’ through ball, but the Argentine skewed his effort wide of the target.

Messi had another effort on goal in the 31st minute, but both his initial and rebounded efforts were saved by Gianluigi Buffon.

The home side dominated possession stakes, but  failed to find a way past a resilient Juve defence as the two teams went into the half-time break deadlocked at 0-0.

The visitors came out in the second half with more of an attacking intent, and should have gone ahead in the 50th minute when Higuain teed up Cuadrado, but the Colombian sent his low effort wide of the target.

Messi looked to take matters into his own hands in the 56th minute when he evaded the attention of a few players before unleashing a powerful effort, which was tipped away by Buffon.

Barcelona became desperate in their bid to claw their way back into the game and deployed defender Gerard Pique as an auxiliary centre forward, but the move garnered little success.

Things weren’t going the way of the Catalan outfit, with a flurry of opportunities being missed by the likes of the ever-reliable Messi, Neymar and Suarez as Barcelona played to a 0-0 draw, which condemned them to a 3-0 defeat on aggregate against the Serie A giants.

Meanwhile, Monaco secured their passage to the Champions League semi-finals with a 3-1 victory against Borussia Dortmund at the Stade Louis II on Wednesday evening, with goals by Kylian Mbappe, Falcao and Valere Germain. The French-based outfit secured a 6-3 victory against Dortmund on aggregate to book their spot in the semi-finals.

Photo: EPA/Alberto Estevez