FC Barcelona - Bayer Leverkusen Preview: Barca without Messi still favourites against Werkself

Last year's Champions League winners, FC Barcelona, host Bayer 04 Leverkusen in their first home game in the tournament. The Catalans are definitely the favourites against Leverkusen, even after Lionel Messi's injury in the last La Liga game against Las Palmas was quite a shock for the team and the club.

A good start

The start into the 2015-16 La Liga campaign was quite good for Luis Enrique's men. After losing the Spanish Super Cup to Athletic Bilbao after a 0-4 away defeat and a 1-1 home draw, Barça beat the Basques 1-0 in their first league game.

The team kept up the good pace as they won 1-0 against Málaga and 2-1 against Atlético Madrid, before drawing 1-1 against Roma in the first Champions League game of the new season.

The next league game was good, winning 4-1 against Levante. But after that - the team suffered a setback - they lost they an away game against underdogs Celta Vigo four-one.

Messi injured

In the last league game against UD Las Palmas, the team won 2-1 but lost superstar Lionel Messi, who tore a ligament in his left knee in just the fourth minute of the game after a block tackle. He will be out for at least six weeks, with others are saying that Barcelona could be without him for more than two months.

A mixed start

Bayer Leverkusen had a mixed start to the new Bundesliga season. The Werkself won their first game against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim two goals by one and won the next game against Hannover 96 1-0.

The play-off win over Lazio (0-1, 3-0) could not help the team in the next games as they lost to Bayern München (0-3) and promoted team SV Darmstadt (0-1).

After winning 4-1 in the first Champions League game against Belarusian side BATE Borisov, Roger Schmidt's men failed to continue playing well as they lost 0-3 to Borussia Dortmund. The last two games were better as Leverkusen won against 1. FSV Mainz (1-0) and Werder Bremen (3-0).

Bad memories

The last time the two teams faced each other, Bayer Leverkusen experienced had a nightmare. In the 2011/12 Champions League campaign, the Werkself had to play against the Blaugrana: the home game for Leverkusen went relatively well even though they lost 1-3.

The away game was, however, a disaster. Lionel Messi was in a very good form, as he contributed five goals to the 7-1 win. Only Karim Bellarabi scored for Leverkusen in stoppage time, when the game was already over as a contest.