Lionel Messi's body language said it all as Barcelona were sent into full-blown meltdown in their historic Champions League quarter-final humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich on Friday. He could only look on helplessly as the club to which he has brought so much glory succumbed to a record 8-2 defeat in Lisbon. By the end, even with the ball he could not make anything happen—he was robbed of possession in his own half to start the move which brought Bayern's seventh goal at the Estadio da Luz. Earlier, in a photo taken through the door of what appears to be Barca's changing room at half-time and which has widely circulated online, Messi can be seen sitting alone at the end of his bench, turned away, wearing both the captain's armband and a look of total resignation.

Barca's worst defeat

He looked beaten as he stared at the floor with his shoulders drooping, deflated, done, exhausted, perhaps even, old. Bayern were 4-1 up at that point, but there was no chance of a comeback in the second half and instead it became Barcelona's worst ever defeat in Europe. The hope had been that Messi would erase all logic by beating arguably the most formidable club team in the world right now on his own, and in spite of everything around him. How did it come to this? And more pressingly, what now? At 33, Messi has to decide if he wants to be part of the overhaul that is surely now unavoidable at the Camp Nou.