Sports

The Catalans are in Belarus for their third UEFA Champions League match in Group E, tonight against BATE Borisov. A total of 20 players have made the journey while the injured Leo Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Rafinha stay at home, as do Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal due to the FIFA suspension. Speaking to the press shortly after arriving in Belarus, Barça boss Luis Enrique commented that the club is "in one of the toughest groups and we are not expecting it to be easy". On the absence of Leo Messi, he added that the team "works as unit" and "it's not a question of another player taking over his role." The Catalans currently top the table with four points from the first two fixtures. Barça's Champions League title defence began with a 1-1 draw at AS Roma. That was followed by a 2-1 defeat of Bayer Leverkusen at the Camp Nou.

The FC Barcelona vice president, Jordi Mestres assured that the Club "is not happy at all" with the UEFA sanction for the presence of Catalan Independence flags at Camp Nou during the Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen. "We will never tell our members and fans to not express their opinion" Mestre commented to the media. "We will appeal against the decision, and if necessary, we will take legal advice" stated Mestres, at his arrival in Minsk this Tuesday, where FC Barcelona has a duel against BATE Borisov. This is not the first time that UEFA fines FC Barcelona for showing pro-independence flags during a match; at the Champions League final on the 6 June the club was sanctioned for the same reason.

FC Barcelona returned in the second half against Bayer Leverkusen to record their first win of this season's Champions League. The first game without Leo Messi following his knee injury against Las Palmas saw coach, Luis Enrique bring Sandro into the Catalan team’s starting line up for the first time ever in the Champions League. Although the Germans had taken the lead after 22 minutes through defender Papadopoulos and had proved a match for Luis Enrique's side in the opening half, two goals from Sergi Roberto and Luis Suárez in the last 10 minutes of the contest settled the final score.

Luis Enrique’s Barça side are looking for their first win in this season’s Champions League following their 1-1 draw against AS Roma in the opening fixture in Group E. Standing in their way are a Bayer 04 Leverkusen side who won their first game 4-1 at home to BATE Borisov. Tuesday’s game at Camp Nou will be their first without the services of Leo Messi following the knee ligament injury he suffered in the 2-1 win at home in the league against Las Palmas. Bayer 04 coach Roger Schmidt has injury worries of his own as his side will be without defenders Jedvaj and Ömer Toprak due to injury. The teams will be meeting for the ninth time in the European competition where up until know Barça has managed to keep the upper hand recording five wins against the German team.

Lionel Messi is expected to be out for the next seven to eight weeks after the this Saturday match at Camp Nou. The four-time Ballon d’Or winner tore a ligament in his left knee and abandoned the pitch after only ten minutes into the game which proved to be a costly victory for Barça. Luis Suárez scored once in each half to make a 2-1 victory with his second goal blasting out of the reach of Las Palmas goalkeeper Javi Varas and into the upper left corner of the net. Jonathon Viera did manage to get a goal back for Las Palmas in the 87th minute, depriving both Barça and goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen of a clean sheet.

Barça suffered its first defeat (4-1) this season versus Celta at Balaidos. Also they lost their one hundred per cent record in the 2015/16 Liga season and their place at the top of the table. Former Barça man Nolito opened the scoring at the 26^th minute of the match. Four minutes later, Iago Aspas pounced on a Barça error in the middle of the park and raced away on the counter attack, finishing with a goal and make it 2-0. At the second half, Aspas again charged free and Celta were three in front. With eleven minutes left, Barça finally found the net thanks to Neymar, who slipped the ball home with style. But any chance of a late comeback was ended when John Guidetti found himself alone in the area at the other end, smashing home the final nail in the coffin. 

FC Barcelona are looking to make it five wins from five when they take on Celta Vigo on Wednesday at Balaídos (kick off 8.00pm CET) against a side which has picked up ten out of a possible 12 points so far this campaign. Luis Enrique expects a tough challenge against his former team on a ground which traditionally poses problems for the Catalans. Barça have been boosted by the return of defender Gerard Pique but In a last-minute development, Jordi Alba has been ruled out with neck soreness and has been replaced in the squad by Douglas. Barcelona are the only team in the top division with a perfect record of four wins from the first four games. Another win in Vigo would see the title holders remain top of the league.

Lionel Messi tallied his first two goals of the season as FC Barcelona ran away from Levante in the second half on Sunday night, winning 4–1 at Camp Nou. Defender Marc Bartra opened the scoring five minutes after the break and was quickly seconded by Neymar. After a Messi penalty kick that seemed to slam the door shut, Levante’s Víctor Casadesús provided his side a brief glimmer of hope before Messi threw away the key with a killer strike in the waning moments. The triumph makes Barça a perfect four-for-four on the season, keeping them at the top of the league table, as well as a perfect eleven-for-eleven all-time versus Levante at Camp Nou in La Liga. Levante remain winless on the season despite snapping a four-game league goalless drought at Camp Nou.

FC Barcelona began the Champions League with a 1-1 draw against AS Roma. Barça players deserved more after dominating most of the game, but it was a convincing display that might have ended very differently with a little more luck in the goal area. The Catalans began the game having control of the ball. A goal came after 21 minutes of play when Rakitic crossed from the right and Suárez headed home practically from the goal-line. But the lead only lasted for ten minutes. Just after the half hour point, Florenzi got the Italians back on level terms with an extraordinary goal from over 50 metres out. Barça stayed in control of the match despite the Roma goal, but there was no further scoring. The lowest point in the match was Rafinha’s injury after he was taken out from behind and carried off the pitch in a stretcher.

At 8.45pm (CET) tonight, FC Barcelona plays AS Roma at the Oympic Stadium in Rome to defend its Champions League crown. Three survivors of the 2009 side that lifted the trophy in the Olympic Stadium, Gerard Piqué, Leo Messi and Andrés Iniesta will play. A fourth, Dani Alves, is forced to miss out on the trip due to injury. Although AS Roma boss, Rudi Garcia, said that his team was ready for the task of facing the defending champions, and aimed to “assure a positive result”, Barça coach, Luis Enrique, described the goal of retaining the trophy as creating “quite the opposite” of pressure for the Catalan team. The game sees Barcelona back in the Champions League action only 102 days after their victory in the final against Juventus in Berlin.

Second-half goals from Neymar and Messi eclipse Torres icebreaker and keep Catalans perfect with three wins in three tries. Diego Simeone’s team went up 1–0 in the 52nd. Torres received an unexpected pass out of the midfield and slipped the ball past blaugrana goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen. But just three minutes later Neymar, after being taken down 25 metres from the Atlético goal, dusted himself off and converted a textbook free kick that curled up and over the four-man wall and broke back down into upper left corner, the only spot where the high-flying Oblak couldn’t get to it. Lionel Messi came off the bench in the second half and scored less than a quarter-hour from time to hand FC Barcelona a 2–1 comeback victory.

A goal from Vermaelen enough to give Barça victory in their first home league game of the season on a frustrating evening at Camp Nou. FC Barcelona gave a masterclass in sticking to the task and never giving up with a narrow victory over a dogged Málaga side. Thomas Vermaelen was the hero of the hour, the Belgian’s first ever goal for Barça in the second half enough to maintain the blaugranes’ 100 per cent record at the start of this 2015/16 league season.

The blaugranes face their first league game of the season at Camp Nou against the Andalusians in a game which kicks off at 8.30pm CET. Luis Enrique's side got off to an excellent start to the league campaign last weekend with a 1-0 win against Athletic Club Bilbao, Luis Suárez's goal giving them all three points. Before the game against Málaga, which will be the first since the pitch was recently relaid, captain Andrés Iniesta will present the European Super Cup to the crowd following their victory in the competition earlier this month in Tbilisi. At the same time Leo Messi will also show off the UEFA Best Player in Europe accolade collected on Thursday at the gala for the draw for the Champions League group stage.

FC Barcelona will begin the defence of their title in Group E following the draw on Thursday in Monaco. Luis Enrique's team will begin the road to Milan - the venue for this season's final - and their first challenge will be against the sides from Germany, Italy and Belarus in the group stages. Barça have met Bayer three times in the Champions League era. AS Roma was the rival of the Joan Gamper trophy a few weeks ago, while BATE Borisov is former Barça man Aleksander Hleb’ team.

The Argentine received a total of 49 votes, beating Luis Suárez (3) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2) to the award. The recognition is deserved after an exceptional season for the Barça number 10 in which he scored 58 goals in 57 competitive matches in 2015/16. He scored in the Vicente Calderón against Atlético to hand the blaugranes the league title and he found the net twice in the Copa del Rey final win over Athletic Club. Messi was exceptional in the Champions League final against Juventus, although he was unable to score the goal his performance deserved. Previously, in the semi-finals against Bayern Munich, his two goals were decisive in deciding the tie, one of which has been voted as the best of the Champions League season.