SUAREZ SHOWS HE CAN LEAD BARCELONA IN MESSI'S ABSENCE

The Uruguay striker shot the Blaugrana to victory for
the second time in four days as they started life, and
struggled, without their injured Argentine attacker
against Leverkusen
COMMENT By Ben Hayward
No Lionel Messi, no problem? Not exactly.
Barcelona made extremely hard work of their
Champions League clash at home to Bayer Leverkusen
on Tuesday night, but for the second time in less than a
week, they had Luis Suarez to thank for coming out on
top.
Messi limped out of Barca's Liga game at home to Las
Palmas on Saturday after only nine minutes and
Suarez stepped up to score both goals in a 2-1 win. And
after it was confirmed the Argentine attacker will miss
up to two months with ligament damage in his left knee,
the Uruguayan was there to rescue Barca again in this
one.
Things did not start well, however, and Barca could have
been behind after only a minute as Marc Andre ter
Stegen saved a close-range shot from Javier
Hernandez.
After opportunities at either end, Leverkusen took a
shock lead. Bad marking from Suarez and Jeremy
Mathieu - and poor positioning by Ter Stegen - allowed
Kyriakos Papadopoulos to head home from a curling
corner to shock the Camp Nou crowd.
A rapid reaction was expected, but it didn't really
materialise as the German defence stood strong.
Without Messi, Neymar made no real impact in what has
been a difficult week for the Brazil forward off the
pitch as he faces a tax probe, while Suarez struggled as
Barca's midfielders were unable to supply a final ball
to their two South Americans.
There was no avalanche after the interval, either, and
Leverkusen must have believed in their chances of
winning the game as time went by. In the end, it took a
scrappy goal from Sergi Roberto to level the scores with
10 minutes left after Bernd Leno had only been able to
parry Munir El Haddadi's shot.
The momentum was with Barca, and Munir was
instrumental again as the Catalans found the winner,
persevering to shake off several defenders on the
right-hand side of the area before laying an inviting
ball off to Suarez. The former Liverpool forward still
had plenty to do, but curled a delicious drive into the
top corner from the edge of the box to save the day in
Messi's absence.