Barcelona open Champions League with uninspiring win over APOEL
BARCELONA, Spain --
Lionel Messi set up Barcelona's only goal in a 1-0 win over Cypriot club APOEL on Wednesday for an uninspiring Champions League debut for coach Luis Enrique.
Messi picked out Gerard Pique with a free kick and the defender headed in the hosts' solitary goal in the 28th minute.
With nine changes to the starting 11 that beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 on Saturday, Barcelona otherwise failed to trigger its flowing attack despite having Neymar in the team.
The Catalan side had to deal with a series of APOEL's counterattack in the second half but held on for the three points.
Barcelona has now won all four games it has played under Luis Enrique after also taking the early lead of the Spanish league with three victories in as many matches.
For Barcelona, the match featured debuts for goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and youth-team midfielder Sergi Samper as well as European debuts for B-team forwards Munir El Haddadi and Sandro Ramirez.
Adriano played his first game since recovering from a heart irregularity detected this summer, while Xavi Hernandez also got his first start of the season.
The overhaul, however, almost cost Barcelona dearly when APOEL relinquished its defensive tactics from the first half and went searching for an equalizer, which it almost found on several occasions.
After a tepid start with a couple of tame attempts by Munir and Neymar, Barcelona went ahead just before the half-hour mark when Dani Alves received a nasty tackle from Marios Antoniades. With Dani Alves being treated on the sideline, Messi curled an in-swinging free kick into the area that Pique guided into the net.
After spending most of the first half camped in its area, APOEL managed to conjure a counterattack in the 64th that Dani Alves did well to halt.
Luis Enrique sent on Andres Iniesta, Ramirez and Rafina at intervals to try and spark his attack.
But it was forward Tomas De Vincenti who wasted a chance in the 79th when his strike sailed woefully wide after APOEL had caught Barcelona off-balance on the break.
Messi came close to adding to his 67 Champions League goals and close in on Raul Gonzalez's record of 71 in stoppage time, when he pounced on a rebound of a Neymar strike, only for Mario Sergio to slide in and deny his goal-bound shot.
Ter Stegen then had to make a one-handed save off Gustavo Manduca's rising strike to guarantee the win.
