Champions League: Suarez, Messi hit doubles as Barcelona rout Roma

Barcelona benefitted from a missed offsides call by officials that allowed Dani Alves to scoot a pass to Suarez for an open-net strike past an overwhelmed on-loan goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, with Messi doubling the lead three minutes later by chipping an excellent ball of Szczesny’s head. It’s also just Messi’s first goal in this year’s Champions League campaign.

Suarez hit two and Neymar got another in the demolition of Real, taking the pair’s total to 19 goals in seven games.

Stegen did well to save from Dzeko early in the second half, moments before Gerard Piuque scored Barca’s fourth and Messi netted his second of the night with a close range finish after Suarez’s original shot was saved.

Edin Dzeko had a penalty saved too, and that after heading wide from 10 yards with the game goalless, as Roma endured a night to forget.

Frighteningly enough for opponents, Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer said despite his strong return, he has yet to recover his peak form.

“We’ve got to take all the chances we get”.

Barcelona discovered they had qualified from Group E before they had kicked a ball at the Camp Nou, the 1-1 draw between BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen in Belarus ensuring their passage. And you can tell their players are having fun by the wide smiles and group hug after each goal.

Sergi Samper was introduced at the break (yay!) and Barcelona continued to play like a team of superhuman monsters (double yay!).

Lyon pressed hard for the victor throughout the second half but Gent stole the points right at the end when Kalifa Coulibaly headed home a corner at the second attempt, some five minutes into stoppage time.

“The good news had arrived even before kick-off”, the Giallorossi coach declared in the post-match press conference.

“The feeling that I have is that we’re enjoying ourselves out there on the field”, Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic said after the win against Roma advanced his team to the knockout stage of the Champions League for the 12th straight season.

Victory moves Kiev to within two points of Porto and Chelsea, and a home win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv would be enough to go through.

“They gave away three or four goals with runs like child’s play”.