'I cannot hide' - Chelsea's Thibaut Courtois owns up to Lionel Messi 'mistakes' after Champions League exit

1/25

Thibaut Courtois vows not to hide from his mistakes after Chelsea were dumped out of the Champions League by a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona.

The Argentine beat Courtois from an acute angle after just 127 seconds, slotting the ball between the goalkeeper's legs, before repeating the act in the second half having also assisted Ousmane Dembele's first goal of the club.

Courtois accepts Messi has beaten him by using the same tactic previously, adding that his height makes conceding through his legs an increased possibility, but has no intention of shying away from criticism.

"I've played against Messi a lot of times and I've already conceded goals through my legs with him," he told BT Sport.

"With a goalkeeper like me, two metres [tall], the weakest point maybe is between your legs because even if I'm standing in position there is a lot of space in between.

"It's annoying but I don't think I need to hide inside. I have to come out, be a man and show you made a mistake and move on.

"I also made some good saves as well, but it's unlucky to go out to four goals where we made four mistakes. We have to move on, work hard and continue."

Messi scored his 99th and 100th goals in the competition as Barcelona reached the Champions League quarter-final for the 11th season in a row.

Courtois, though, feels Chelsea deserved to make the last eight as the Catalan outfit were efficient to punish their mistakes to the fullest.

He added: "I don't think we deserve to be out, but individual mistakes cost us in both legs. The first goal, I did not expect Lionel Messi to shoot from that angle and I was too late in closing my legs. It was a mistake on my part.

"There were missed passes from us and they scored from our mistakes. We defended and played well, hit the crossbar which was unlucky on our side but the individual mistakes cost us. We have to be honest about that."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in