FOOTBALL Own goal rescues Barca

Lionel Messi will have to wait for his 100th goal in Europe after Barcelona eked out a 1-0 win at Sporting Lisbon thanks to an own-goal in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Center back Sebastian Coates was the unlucky scorer when Messi’s free kick deflected off another Sporting defender and Barcelona’s Luis Suarez. The ball then hit Coates and bounced into the net four minutes after halftime.

“We ended up losing to a freak own-goal,” Sporting coach Jorge Jesus said.

Barcelona offered little else in attack, other than a couple of shots each by Messi and Suarez, and needed goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to ensure the points with a key save as Sporting hemmed the visitors into their area.

The ugly slog of a match was interrupted in the 90th minute when a fan invaded the pitch to approach Messi, before being escorted off.

“We knew that to get a win here we would have to dig in. The stadium has a great atmosphere and the adversary was very strong,” said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde, whose first season in charge has produced an eight-match winning streak and first place in both the Spanish league and the Champions League group.

Barcelona took the lead in Group D with six points from two matches after beating Juventus 3-0 in their group opener. Juventus and Sporting have three points. Juventus beat Greek side Olympiakos 2-0 in the group’s other game Wednesday, with Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic scoring for last year’s finalist. /