No Messi, no prob­lem for Barca

Jamaica Gleaner - - SPORTS -

Win­some Wilkins (left), chair­man of the Usain Bolt Foun­da­tion, greets Marisa Dal­rym­ple-Philib­ert, mem­ber of par­lia­ment for South Trelawny, fol­low­ing the launch of the Usain Bolt Foun­da­tion and the JN Foun­da­tion Heroes in Ac­tion 4k Run and 8K Run/Walk at the His­toric Fal­mouth Port, re­cently. Also look­ing on is Saf­frey Brown, gen­eral man­ager of the JN Foun­da­tion. The char­ity run/walk is slated for this up­com­ing Heroes week­end on Oc­to­ber 16 at the Fal­mouth Port, with pro­ceeds go­ing to the Vic­tim Ser­vices Di­vi­sion and the Granville Place of Safety. MOENCHENGLAD­BACH, Ger­many (AP): BARCELONA OVER­CAME the ab­sence of Lionel Messi to come from be­hind and beat Borus­sia Moenchenglad­bach 21 in the Cham­pi­ons League yes­ter­day.

Ger­ard Pique stabbed home the win­ning goal in the 74th minute af­ter a cor­ner from Ney­mar was volleyed by Luis Suarez. Moenchenglad­bach goal­keeper Yann Som­mer spilled the shot and the Barcelona de­fender hus­tled to nod it home.

Ney­mar cre­ated Barcelona’s equaliser with a through ball for sub­sti­tute Arda Tu­ran, who drilled it into the roof of the net in the 65th, five min­utes af­ter com­ing on for Ivan Rakitic.

Moenchenglad­bach could not hold on to the lead it got in the 34th. Mah­moud Da­houd and Raf­fael dou­ble-teamed to put Ser­gio Bus­quets un­der pres­sure and win the ball. Raf­fael car­ried it for­ward and then fed Da­houd on the left. His per­fectly timed pass found Hazard open to slot home from close range.

...PSG, Napoli, Arse­nal among win­ners, City held

AT­TACK LACK­ING BITE

With­out Messi, Barcelona’s at­tack lacked bite un­til the mid­dle of the sec­ond half. His re­place­ment, Paco Al­cacer, mak­ing his Cham­pi­ons League de­but, had lit­tle im­pact.

Ney­mar was closely marked, of­ten by two or three Moenchenglad­bach play­ers. But the Brazil­ian got more space in the sec­ond half and used it well.

Suarez lacked sup­port, but he Barcelona’s Ney­mar (cen­tre) chal­lenge for the ball with Moenchenglad­bach’s Os­car Wendt (left) and Moenchenglad­bach’s Ibrahima Traore dur­ing the Cham­pi­ons League group C match be­tween Borus­sia Moenchenglad­bach and FC Barcelona in Moenchenglad­bach, Ger­many, yes­ter­day.

was the one who threat­ened, fir­ing high in the first real chance in the 11th.

Suarez might have done bet­ter later in the first half had he shot for him­self in­stead of squar­ing the ball to Al­cacer. Ju­lian Korb made a great slid­ing tackle to deny the Barcelona for­ward a shot at goal from close range.

Fol­low­ing an open­ing 7-0 drub­bing of Celtic, Barcelona now have six points in Group C.

Moenchenglad­bach are at two de­feats, hav­ing also lost the opener 4-0 to Manch­ester City.

Manch­ester City were held 33 at Celtic.

Barcelona goal­keeper Mar­cAn­dre ter Ste­gen got a warm re­cep­tion from for­mer home fans, hav­ing played for­merly for Moenchenglad­bach.

It was Barcelona’s sec­ond win in their last seven matches in Ger­many.

At the Emi­rates, Arse­nal beat Basel 2-0, while PSG got the bet­ter of Lu­do­grets on the road with a 3-1 win.

Napoli out-pow­ered Ben­fica 4-2 in their first Cham­pi­ons League home game in two years, while Be­sik­tas and Dy­namo Kiev drew 1-1 in their con­test.

Atlético Madrid tagged Bay­ern Mu­nich 1-0, with PSV and Rostov end­ing 2 - 2.

AP

CON­TRIB­UTED

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