The Argentina forward lived up to his billing as the best player in the world with four goals to end the Gunners' European dream in the Nou Camp.

Bendtner had fired the Gunners into a shock lead on 18 minutes. However, Messi soon drew Barcelona level after capitalising on a mistake by Mikael Silvestre.

The Argentina forward then added a second from close range before dashing clear to make it 3-1 on the night just before the break, and grabbed a fourth with three minutes left to complete a comfortable 6-3 aggregate victory for the tournament holders.

Bendtner said: "We made a great start and it was very important in the five minutes after that we were tight.

"But in the end, if you look at the whole game they were a better team and deserved to win."

The Arsenal forward added: "Messi scored four fantastic goals and is a phenomenal player in a great team.

"At the moment, I would say he is the best player in the world.

"It is easy to make up excuses, on the day, with what happened they were a better team than us.

"I would rather get beat by a better team, to be able to say we did what we could, rather than be robbed in the last minute."

Arsene Wenger's injury-hit squad, without the likes of captain Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song, must now regroup and focus on overhauling Chelsea and Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League title race - starting with Tottenham at White Hart Lane next Wednesday night.

"Now we can focus - we have five Premier League games left," said Bendtner.

"The next three ones are going to be vital for all of the top three, so I think there will be a lot of swapping around."