Barcelona 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen: Highlights and 5 Talking Points

Barcelona celebrate Luis Suarez’s winner as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at the Camp NouA Lionel Messi-less Barcelona left it late but eventually eked out a narrow 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen as they took pole position in Group E. Kyriakos Papadopoulos headed home a corner midway in the first half to give the visitors a shock lead. After nearly an hour of valiant fighting, their resilience was beaten as substitute Sergi Roberto who tapped home a loose ball after goalkeeper Leno spilled a pass. Luis Suarez then turned the match on its head with a venomous shot from inside the box.It was a bit harsh on Leverkusen as they showed plenty of quality and vigour to hold the defending champions for a large swathe of the game. But a moment of brilliance from the maverick Uruguayan was all it took to snatch all three points. Here are some of the talking points from the game. Highlights

#1 Luis Suarez once again steps up

In the absence of their chieftain Lionel Messi, Barcelona always had to walk the extra mile to grind out a victory, for he has such an influence on the match just with his presence. That left the remaining two of the prolific MSN troika, Neymar and Suarez, to come up trumps in such situations. And needless to say, the latter starred again and stepped up to the plate for Barcelona. 

Suarez had scored a brace last week in his side’s 2-1 win over Las Palmas at home, and for the second match on the bounce, proved to be the difference-maker with a sumptuous strike into the top corner from a tight angle that handed the home side the winner. The Uruguayan ace waved his wand yet again and came up big when it really mattered.

However, prior to his match-winning moment, the former Liverpool hitman was one of the few shining lights in an otherwise gloomy Barca side, getting involved in fast build-up play, trying to get the likes of Neymar and Sandro into the game and putting up crosses for his teammates.