Barcelona 3-0 Bayern Munich Champions League semi-final

Barcelona will take a 3-0 lead into the second leg of their Champions League semi-final after two second-half goals from Lionel Messi saw off Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp.

Messi netted his 76th and 77th goals in Europe’s premier club competition to put Luis Enrique’s side in the driving seat ahead of the return encounter in Germany on Tuesday night.

And an injury-time strike from Neymar all but booked Barcelona's place in the final in Berlin in June.

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Lionel Messi jumps in the air after scoring his second goal of the night during his side's Champions League win over Bayern Munich

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Messi doubled his side's lead by running through the heart of Bayern Munich's defence before chipping the ball over Manuel Neuer

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Neuer fails to get his hand on to Messi's chipped shot while Bayern Munich's defenders can only watch the Barcelona ace's shot land in the net

Bayern coach Pep Guardiola sprang a major surprise in the opening minutes by trying to contain Barcelona’s free-scoring attack with a three-man defence tasked with man-marking Luis Suarez, Messi and Neymar.

However, the visitors were grateful to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer for keeping them in the tie in the opening 15 minutes, with the ever-alert Germany international racing off his line after just 12 minutes to block Suarez's goal-bound effort with his feet.

Two minutes later Barca again came desperately close to opening the scoring when Suarez nipped in ahead of Jerome Boateng in the Bayern penalty area, before firing a dangerous ball across the six-yard box for Neymar to toe-poke goalwards - only to see it deflected behind for a corner by Rafinha.

Guardiola switched to a back four during the first half and striker Robert Lewandowski - wearing a mask to protect his broken nose and cheekbone – really should have put them ahead after 18 minutes, only to stab his close-range shot wide of Marc-Andre ter Stegen's far post after fine approach play by Thomas Muller.

After half-time the home side moved up yet another gear as they sought to press home their territorial advantage and take a crucial lead with them into the second leg at the Allianz Arena.

However, as hard as they pushed, Barcelona struggled to find a way past Neuer, who was in imperious form between the sticks for the Bundesliga champions until the last quarter of an hour of the contest.

With just 13 minutes left to play, the home side finally got the goal their pressure and build-up play warranted as both Dani Alves and then Suarez worked the ball to Messi on the right edge of the penalty area and the quick-footed playmaker beat Neuer with a fiercely-struck low shot at his near post.

Then came the killer second goal three minutes later as Messi firstly sat Boateng on his backside in the box, before keeping his composure to dink the ball brilliantly over Neuer’s head and move back ahead of Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo in the all-time Champions League goalscoring charts.

However, if that strike was damaging enough for Bayern, then Neymar’s goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time may well have ended this tie as a contest, with the Brazil international given acres of space to race on to Messi’s through-ball and beat the helpless Neuer.

But Bayern will argue Neymar should not have been on the pitch at the time after the forward was booked in the second half and was then lucky to escape a second caution after apprearing to take a 'dive' in the box.