Barcelona were able to come back from a goal down to win 2-1 against Bayer Leverkusen in their first home match of the new UEFA Champions League campaign, but without their best player on the pitch.

Defensive mistakes costs Barcelona

It was another lackluster first half for the home side in their first home UEFA Champions League match of the season against the side from Germany. In the 45 minutes played at the Camp Nou, Barcelona only attempted four shots in the first half against Bayer Leverkursen, but all of them were on target, with good saves made by the German goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

Just seconds in the first half, Leverkusen had a great chance from Javier Hernandez as his attempt was saved by Marc Andres ter Stegen. Five minutes in, a ball was given from Neymar to Ivan Rakitic, in which the Croatian gets an attempt on goal with his header, but it went straight into the hands of Leno. 

Sandro Ramirez, who replaced Lionel Messi as the starting right winger tonight after the injury he suffered over the weekend at Las Palmas that will see him out of action for at least two months. He had a chance in the 9th minute for his chance to be saved by Leno. The first big chance for the away side came from Karim Bellarabi as his shot just went wide of ter Stegen’s goal.

Bayer would draw first blood in a strange way. In the 23rd minute and following a Hakan Calhanoglu corner, the ball was licked in at far post from Kyriakos Papadopoulos from his header as he went above Jeremy Mathieu and past ter Stegen, who again, made a bad mistake in front of goal. A chance for Barcelona to equalize in the 38th minute, Neymar’s shot hit the post on the left hand side and a follow up by Sandro was saved by defenders and Leno as well.

Halftime: Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Barcelona

In the second half, it was well determined that a frustrated Barcelona side was looking to score and get a winner. The German side almost doubled their lead inside five minutes when Hernandez had a clear opportunity on goal, but the striker skid the ball high over the net in what was a bad match overall for the Mexican before being replaced minutes after his missed opportunity.

Barcelona were desperately looking for chances all in all but both Sandro and Neymar were unable to finish and score in front of goal, which later lead to Sandro’s substitution for the man that substituted Lionel Messi on Saturday following his injury, Munir El Haddadi. Another injury scare came for Barcelona at the hour mark as captain Andres Iniesta had to be substituted out for Jordi Alba in which was later confirmed to be a thigh injury and could be out for two to three weeks. Barcelona would however, get their way.

In the 81st minute, Alba played a pass to Marc Bartra on the left hand side of the pitch and eventually, the ball was given to Sergi Roberto from Munir to allow the Catalan midfielder with a simple tap in past Leno to make it level, rejuvenating the possibility of a win.

Suarez scores match winning goal

Just seconds later, the ball was given from Munir to Luis Suarez from the right hand side on the pitch and his first time shot just goes past Leno to score the game winner and give Barcelona the three points that they needed following their 1-1 draw against AS Roma two weeks ago.

It was a lackluster performance but a big three points for the Blaugrana as the young winger Munir was the man of the moment to provide two assists to Roberto and Suarez for their goals, in what could possibly be his golden chance of starting on the right wing alongside the Uruguayan and Neymar. They will take on BATE Borisov on October 20. Bayer on the other hand, will now take on AS Roma on October 20, who suffered a loss against BATE Borisov in Belarus.