In the absence of Lionel Messi, the 23-year-old could be the answer to Barcelona’s prayers.
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Barcelona’s injury problems continue to mount as captain Andres Iniesta hobbled off during their come-from-behind win against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday with a hamstring injury.
“We wanted the three points, but I would call it a Pyrrhic victory because of the three injuries after 50 minutes”, Roma coach Rudi Garcia said. The second is whether this team is as good as last season’s edition or whether Luis Enrique’s strategies have been exposed and are more susceptible.
“My players deserve a huge amount of credit for turning around a very hard situation”.
“Sometimes you win due to belief, sometimes through spirit and others through confidence”, he said. “It’s clear today it was about faith”.
Dynamo Kiev secured a comfortable 2-0 victory at Maccabi Tel Aviv as a goal in each half from Andriy Yarmolenko and Junior Moraes helped them record their first win in Champions League Group G.
Roberto pounced after Leno had saved Suarez s initial effort to net his first European goal.
The visitors’ resistance would eventually crumble with just 10 minutes left, however, with Munir El Haddadi’s deflected shot being parried by Leno into the path of Sergi Roberto, who had the easy task of tapping home from point-blank range.
Following confirmation of Lionel Messi’s injury, which is expected to keep the Barcelona talisman out for up to two months, Luis Enrique said his side needed to accept the challenge and rally around without him.
With the injured Messi watching on, Barca struggled to click going forward and Leverkusen snatched a surprise lead when Papadopoulos flicked home Hakan Calhanoglu’s pacey corner, with Ter Stegen caught out of position.
Unlike Tuesday’s opponents, Leverkusen started their Champions League with a win beating BATE Borisov 4-1 to take the top spot in Group E with three points.
He became the first player to score five goals in a Champions League match when Barca hammered the Bundesliga side 7-1 in the 2012 round of 16. The result reinforces the team.
It was also a bad night for English clubs Chelsea and Arsenal, who both suffered defeats.
Andre Andre pounced in the 39th minute after keeper Asmir Begovic could only block Yacine Brahimi’s shot, but Brazil midfielder Willian equalized on halftime with a free-kick.
For a segment of the soccer public in the United States, they are mainly neutral fans that enjoy the attractive game. He has been back since – in his first season at Chelsea, the London club lost 2-1 at Porto in the group stage, while it drew 1-1 there in the last 16 in 2006-07.
Meanwhile Theo Walcott says Alexis Sanchez’s ability to reproduce the form that terrorised Leicester holds the key to Arsenal’s success against Greek champions Olympiakos.
However, Icelandic substitute Alfred Finnbogason responded just a minute after the Chile star’s 65th-minute header to end Olympiakos’ run of 12 defeats away to English clubs.
“In pre-season none of Leo, Neymar or (Luis) Suarez played, but our idea of how to play didn’t change”.
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Messi was able to play barely 10 minutes in the match and picked the injury as defender Pedro Bigas blocked his attempt on goal from the right wing.
