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Messi conquers Buffon as Barca beats Juve, 3-0

- / AP

Lionel Messi finally added Italy great Gianluigi Buffon on his long, long list of vanquished goalkeeper­s.

Messi struck two shots past Buffon to lead Barcelona to a 3-0 victory over Juventus in their opening match of the Champions League on Tuesday.

Two of soccer's all-time best players, the 39-year-old Buffon had denied Messi a goal in their previous three meetings, including Juventus' 3-0 aggregate win in last season's quarterfin­als.

But once he found room to work, Messi picked Buffon's Juventus apart - to take some revenge from last year's eliminatio­n and continue his superb start to the current season.

Messi grabbed his 95th and 96th goals in the Champions League, breaking the deadlock just before the end of the first half in the Group D game. After he had hit the post and played a part in Ivan Rakitic's second goal, Messi rounded off the commanding win.

The first half was dull, apart from long-range attempts by Miralem Pjanic and Mattia De Sciglio for Juventus, until Messi struck just before the interval.

Ousmane Dembele, the most expensive signing in Barcelona's history, made his first start for the Catalan club. The 20-yearold France forward helped with a counteratt­ack that caught the Juventus defense off-guard. Messi took the ball from Dembele, worked a quick one-two with Luis Suarez and then rolled a leftfoot shot just inside the far post.

Messi helped make it 2-0 in the 56th when his dangerous low cross was cleared by substitute Stefano Sturaro back to Rakitic, who fired it home.

Messi got his second in the 69th when he took the ball on the right side and cut back to go around two defenders. He left Buffon with no chance against another left-foot strike that smacked into the lower corner of his net. As Barcelona's coach Ernesto Valverde put it, “when Messi has the ball, anything can happen.”

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique cleared a header by Medhi Benatia off the line in Juventus' best scoring opportunit­y in the 81st.

Barcelona's all-time top scorer, Messi has now scored eight

Tonight (Messi) did score (against Buffon) because we left him too much space. Messi plays perfectly well in tight spaces, but today he had more space, and I would even say that we made it easier for him, leaving him so open.

MASSIMILLI­ANO ALLEGRI

Juventus coach goals in six games across all competitio­ns this season.

In the other Group D match on Tuesday, Sporting Lisbon won 3-2 at Olympiakos.

Dembele, who debuted as a substitute in a 5-0 rout of Espanyol on Saturday, showed some of the speed that Barcelona wanted when it signed him, but otherwise had a subdued match.

“Dembele was fine. It's true that he has to adapt to the team, to learn some tactical questions,” Valverde said. “We have to help him come along. He has just arrived, he is young, and he has a long career in front of him.”

To pry Dembele away from Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona reinvested a large part of the world record $262 million it received from Paris Saint-Germain for Brazil star Neymar. It paid Dortmund $124 million in a deal that includes possible addons that could bring the total to about $173 million.

 ?? AP FOTO ?? VANQUISHED. Lionel Messi (right) snuck two goals past Italian great Gianluigi Buffon adding the latter to the long list of goalkeeper­s Messi has vanquished.
AP FOTO VANQUISHED. Lionel Messi (right) snuck two goals past Italian great Gianluigi Buffon adding the latter to the long list of goalkeeper­s Messi has vanquished.

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