Messi’s magic lets fans forget about Neymar
LIONEL MESSI was at his brilliant best last night – and Barcelona fans were probably asking “Neymar who?” as they left the Nou Camp at full-time.
The Argentine magician struck twice, either side of Ivan Rakitic’s effort, as the Catalans eased to a 3-0 victory over Juventus.
Messi broke the deadlock in the Group D opener on the stroke of half-time by playing a slick one-two off Luis Suarez and arrowing the ball past Gianluigi Buffon.
He was also the catalyst for the second goal, forcing the Italians to scramble the ball off the line and allowing Croat Rakitic to shoot into an empty net in 56 minutes.
But Messi was far from done. For his second and Barca’s third he received a pass from Andres Iniesta and ripped more holes in a depleted Juve defence before lashing beyond Buffon.
In the other group clash Sporting Lisbon held off a late fightback to beat Olympiacos 3-2 in Greece.
Seydou Doumbia, Gelson Martins and Bruno Fernandes gave Sporting a 3-0 half-time lead and Felipe Pardo’s late double wasn’t enough to save Olympiacos.
CSKA Moscow came back from a goal down in their Group A opener at Benfica to win 2-1.
Haris Seferovic put the hosts ahead but Vitinho’s spot-kick drew the Russians level before sub Timur Zhamaletdinov hit a 71st-minute winner.
In Group C, Roma and visiting Atletico Madrid played out a 0-0 draw.