Story highlights
Barcelona scores two late goals to beat Leverkusen
English teams Chelsea and Arsenal lose
Bayern striker continues prolific goal run
Roma defeated by BATE Borisov
How do you replace a footballer like Lionel Messi?
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said it was impossible after his Argentine maestro was ruled out for up to two months with a knee injury at the weekend.
But the Spanish and European titleholder is not short of resources – as it illustrated in avoiding a shock home defeat in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League clash with Bayer Leverkusen.
The German side had to come through the qualifying playoff to earn a place in Group E, and is nine points off the pace in its domestic Bundesliga after losing three of seven games.
Trailing 1-0 with just 10 minutes to play, Barcelona plucked victory from the jaws of what seemed like an imminent deserved defeat thanks to the combined efforts of a youth product and one of its most expensive signings.
“It was a tough night. My players deserve a huge amount of credit for turning around a very difficult situation,” said Enrique, who also lost key midfielder Andres Iniesta to a hamstring injury during the match.
“Sometimes you win with faith, sometimes with heart, and sometimes with great play. It’s clear today it was about faith.”
Munir El Haddadi came off the bench when Messi injured his knee against Las Palmas on Saturday, and was given a starting role against Leverkusen – and the 20-year-old was involved in both Barca’s goals.
First his blocked shot was pounced on by substitute Sergi Roberto, and the 23-year-old graduate from the club’s La Masia academy equalized in the 80th minute.
El Haddadi, who has already been capped once by Spain, then cut in from the right in a manner reminiscent of Messi and laid the ball into the path of Luis Suarez, who showed the sort of skill that has typified his game since a $110 million move from Liverpool after the 2014 World Cup.
Suarez, who scored both goals in the win over Las Palmas, smashed a right-foot shot high into the net to give Barca its first victory in two group matches.
Greek defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos had given Leverkusen a 22nd-minute lead, as he beat Jeremy Mathieu to a near-post corner and headed home.
Italian club Roma, which held Barcelona 1-1 two weeks ago, crashed to a 3-2 defeat in Belarus against BATE Borisov – which had lost its five previous group games in the competition.
The home side scored three goals in half an hour, with Serbian defender Filip Mladenovic netting twice as the club bounced back from the opening 4-1 defeat by Leverkusen.
Gervinho and Vasilios Torosidis reduced the deficit in the second half, but Rudi Garcia’s team was left bottom of the group and battling to make the knockout stage with four matches to play.
It was also a bad night for English clubs Chelsea and Arsenal, who both suffered defeats.
Premier League champion Chelsea lost 2-1 at manager Jose Mourinho’s former club Porto, which twice went ahead.
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.
His compatriot Maicon headed the winner seven minutes after the break as Chelsea’s defense was again caught out, handing Mourinho’s struggling team a fifth defeat in 11 games in all competitions this season.
Porto’s former Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas made a record 152nd appearance in the competition, moving ahead of former Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez.
The result left Chelsea a point behind Porto and Dynamo Kiev in Group G, with the Ukrainian side following up its opening draw with a 2-0 win away to Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv.
While Arsenal is doing relatively better than Chelsea domestically, it has now lost its first two Group F matches following a 3-2 home defeat against Olympiakos.
The Greeks twice led through Felipe Pardo and an own-goal by No. 2 keeper David Ospina – with regular No. 1 Petr Cech on the bench – but the London side leveled as Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez scored.
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.
Arsene Wenger’s team now faces the prospect of two matches against ominously in-form German champion Bayern Munich, which has now scored eight goals in two games.
Robert Lewandowski continued his phenomenal strike rate with a hat-trick in the 5-0 thrashing of Dinamo Zagreb, and the Poland international now has 10 goals in his last three games.
The crushing defeat ended the Croatian side’s 45-match unbeaten run.
Zenit St. Petersburg has two wins from two in Group H after beating Belgium’s Gent 2-1, as Brazil forward Hulk supplied both goals for Artem Dzyuba and Oleg Shatov.
Spanish team Valencia bounced back from its home defeat by the Russian club, winning 1-0 at Lyon as France-born Algeria international Sofiane Feghouli scored the only goal just before halftime.
Read: Roma’s blueprint for success
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