FC Barcelona beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 in an incredible match at the Camp Nou on Tuesday evening.
Promising opening for both
Last campaign's La Liga, Spanish Cup and Champions League champions, FC Barcelona, started very well, looking for an early goal to make an important step in the right direction. Their first real chance was a header by Ivan Rakitic in the fifth minute after a good cross by Neymar, but Bernd Leno in Leverkusen's goal had no problems with it.
Sandro Ramirez had the next chance for Barcelona but he could not beat Bernd Leno in a one-on-one situation, after a perfect pass by Luis Suarez.
But Bayer Leverkusen put in a brave performanc in the first minutes as they played with an offensive formation. As a result, Barcelona were quite surprised by the German underdogs, who created good opportunities.
In the 22nd minute, a corner by Hakan Calhanoglu found Kyriakos Papadopoulos as he headed it home to make it 1-0 for Bayer.
Barça had some difficulties getting into the match but they got better after 35 minutes and caused trouble for the Bayer defense. In the 39th minute, Neymar's deflected pass into the center of the box touched the right post from where it got to Sandro Ramirez. The youngster released a powerful shot which was saved by a heroic tackle from Papadopoulos, who cleared the ball. The following corner kick did not cause any danger.
Luis Enrique's men realised they had to change something and started attack after attack, but without creating good opportunities. Therefore, the score at half-time was 1-0 for the visitors.
Barcelona turn things around in the second half
After the start of the second half, it was immediately clear that the favourites wanted to change the game. The Barça players acted more aggressive and tried to force opportunities. But the biggest opportunity fell to Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez in the 50th minute, when his shot ten meters from Marc Andre ter Stegen's goal went over the goal.
Only six minutes later Neymar had a very good opportunity for his team, when his shot from just outside the box failed to hit the goal.
Barcelona kept pushing towards Bernd Leno's goal, but they had to wait until the 80th minute to score the equaliser. After a shot by Munir, Leno could not catch the ball and Sergi Roberto took advantage of that mistake to make it 1-1.
Only about one minute later, Munir got the ball just inside the box, passed to Suarez and he scored with an incredible finish from 15 meters.
In the end, Bayer had no power to counter the 2-1 lead for Barcelona and suffered their first defeat in their second Champions League game. Barcelona won their first, after drawing 1-1 against Roma on match day one.
Even though Bayer Leverkusen put in a good performance over the whole 90 minutes, Barça showed their qualities and demonstrated - once again - that they are a real top club.