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Barcelona took control of their Uefa Champions League second-round tie with Bayer Leverkusen following a 3-1 win in Germany.

Drab opening

The result was a fairly drab opening, with a Dani Alves free-kick, sent waywardly over the bar, the sole chance in the opening quarter of an hour.

Daniel Schwaab made a fine intervention to prevent Messi nipping in for an easy close-range chance, before Adriano curled a shot well wide from the left channel with openings hard to come by.

Andre Schurrle fluffed Leverkusen’s only half-chance of the first 45 minutes, totally miskicking when the ball sat up invitingly on the edge of the area.

Messi was doing his best to wriggle through the Leverkusen defence, but could not get enough power on a shot through Schwaab’s legs from a difficult angle.

However, the Argentinian was the provider for the opening goal, flicking a pass over the defence that had Alexis and Cesc Fabregas scampering after it.

Alexis won the debate between the two and slipped it through the legs of the advancing Bernd Leno and into the bottom corner.

Positive restart
With their containment strategy undone, Leverkusen looked much more positive to start the second half, with Manuel Friedrich having an early chance when Puyol’s header fell for him at the far post, but he could not stretch far enough to turn it goalwards.

They were level in the 52nd minute as Vedran Corluka was allowed the time to cross from a tight position, standing the ball up for Kadlec to head in.

But parity lasted only four minutes before Alexis got his second, latching on to a wonderful threaded ball from Fabregas to round the goalkeeper and finish.

Moments later, a defensive mix-up gave Renato Augusto another chance for the hosts, but his shot was straight at Victor Valdes.

Then, in the 64th minute, Castro raced onto the ball and powered a low shot at goal, but Valdes tipped it onto the post.

Messi was the next to find the woodwork, racing in from the right wing and then dinking a shot over the onrushing Leno from a tight angle, only to see it come back off the upright.

Leverkusen introduced Stefan Kiessling from the bench and he almost had an immediate impact, stooping to head Castro’s curling cross goalwards and forcing Valdes into a good save on the line.

Leno was then called on to make a fine save and deny Alexis a hat-trick as he sent a diving header goalwards.

But Barca got what could be a killer third goal two minutes from time, with Messi the creator and finisher as he slipped Dani Alves through and the Brazilian selflessly squared for the Argentinian to find the net with an aerial volley.

Barcelona kick-started the defence of their Champions League crown by roundly thumping BATE Borisov as Lionel Messi scored twice in a 5-0 win to further cement his place in the history of the Catalan club. Messi scored either side of half-time on a rainy evening to take his overall tally for the club to 194 goals and move level with Hungary legend Ladislao Kubala in second place in Barca’s all-time list of leading scorers.

The Spanish champions took the lead on 19 minutes when a Dani Alves cross from the right was not dealt with by Egor Filipenko and Alyaksandr Volodko turned the ball into his own net at the back post under pressure from Messi. Three minutes later and it was 2-0 when Pedro stole a march on a rather static Maksim Bordachev to head home a left-wing David Villa cross.

BATE had set their stall out to defend in numbers, with every man back behind the ball except lone striker Mateja Kezman. Serbian international Kezman’s task was a thankless one, and the former PSV Eindhoven, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain player cut an isolated figure up front as his teammates tried unsuccessfully to soak up the pressure and hit on the break.

Villa saw two efforts well saved by Alyaksandr Gutor before the BATE goalkeeper gifted a third goal to Messi. Pedro’s cross from the right should have been a routine catch, but he contrived to drop the ball right on to the head of Messi, who will probably never score an easier goal in the Champions League. The pattern of the game remained much the same after the restart, and Messi got the goal that brought him level with Kubala on 55 minutes, exchanging passes with Alves before beating Gutor wit
h an unstoppable shot from just inside the area.

It was his 14th goal of this season alone, and that looked to be that until Villa added his name to the scoresheet, making it 5-0 in the last minute. The former Valencia man had been penalised for offside, but BATE made a complete mess of the resulting free-kick, gifting possession straight back to Villa, who finished past a drenched and thoroughly depressed Gutor.