Messi settles debts with Juve

A masterclass from Lionel Messi helped Barcelona avenge their Champions League exit last season to Italian giants Juventus with a 3-0 victory in their Group D opener on Tuesday night at the Camp Nou.

Messi scored a goal in each half and played a part in Ivan Rakitic’s second half score in what was a sensational performance from the Argentine.The victory also extends Barcelona’s sparkling streak since their Spanish Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid to four clean sheet wins by an aggregate score of 12-0.

Tuesday night marked the first time new Barcelona attacking trio Messi, Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez all started together, while also of note was another start at right-back for Semedo, who seems to have won the job from incumbent Sergi Roberto.

The match had a nice flow to it. Barcelona played their usual possession football, but Juventus looked a threat when on the counter-attack and several probing efforts from distance required some fully-stretched stops from Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The night’s other goalkeeper was no slouch either. The legendary Gianluigi Buffon reminded everyone of his greatness when he blocked a sizzling strike from Suarez after Messi’s free kick was drilled into the Juventus wall.

As the first-half wore on Dembele was nowhere to be seen. The new arrival from Borussia Dortmund barely touched the ball and the only reason why he came closest to breaking the deadlock was an egregious error from Mattia De Sciglio that the Frenchman failed to capitalise on.

The Juventus defence was keeping Suarez quiet as well, and they forced Messi to drop deeper to collect the ball to try to generate chances. It looked like the Juventus strategy was going to pay off with a scoreless first-half, but then Messi struck just second before the break to earn Barcelona a 1-0 lead.

It came from nothing; receiving a pass at midfield, Messi raced forward before filtering in a pass to Suarez. The touch back to Messi from the Uruguayan was perfect, allowing the Argentine to surge past three Juve defenders and fire a shot that banked off the post and in, giving Messi his first ever score against Buffon.

Juve were still just a touch away from drawing level and Paulo Dybala should have done much better with a chance at the start of the second stanza when Gerard Pique deflected a cross right in his path, but Messi’s international teammate sent his shot to the heavens.

On this night though Barcelona were the better team, simply because of Messi and he nearly made it two with a stinging effort that banged off the post, hit Buffon in the back and spun out of play.

Messi was even at the centre of attention in the most controversial moment of the match. The Argentine howled for the referee to issue Miralem Pjanic a yellow card for a tackle, but instead Slovenian official Damir Skomina promptly showed Messi a yellow for his unsportsmanlike conduct.

The yellow card only seemed to fire Messi up more, and minutes later he crafted Barcelona’s second, when a deep cross intended for Suarez was cleared by Andrea Barzagli but rolled right to Rakitic, who swept in a right-footer to make it 2-0.

Down two goals, Juventus’ only option left was to send numbers forward in search of getting a goal back, and it played right into Barcelona’s hands. Andres Iniesta led a counter-attack into the Juve half and found the man of the evening on the right edge of the area.

Messi took over from there, gliding past a pair of Juve defenders before rocketing a shot past a wrong-footed Buffon. It was 3-0 and game over.There were still 20 minutes to play though and Juventus fancied themselves a consolation goal and came close on several occasions, only to be denied by Ter Stegen and a goal-line clearance from Pique.Barcelona return to LaLiga action on Saturday at Getafe.Match Sheet:3.- FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Semedo, Pique, Umtiti, Alba, Busquets, Iniesta (Andre Gomes, min. 83), Rakitic (Paulinho, min. 77), Messi, Dembele (Sergi Roberto, min. 71), Suarez.0.-

Juventus: Buffon, De Sciglio (Sturaro, min. 41), Benatia, Barzagli, Bentancur (Bernardeschi, min. 63), Alex Sandro, Matuidi, Pjanic, Dybala, Douglas Costa, Higuain (Caligara, min. 87).Goals: 1-0, min. 45: Messi; 2-0, min. 56: Rakitic; 3-0, min. 69: Messi.Referee: Damir Skomina (Slovenia).Yellow cards: Betancur (Min. 26) for Juventus, Semedo (Min. 35) for Barcelona, Messi (Min. 54) for Barcelona, Barzagli (Min. 61) for Juventus, Pjanic (Min. 75) for Juventus.