Luis Suarez Miramontes: Barca great hails Messi, Suarez and Neymar

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is his team’s “number one” regardless of goals, team-mate Andres Iniesta said.

His presence on the pitch from the start against AS Roma in the European Champions League match on Tuesday also saw him score a brace with impunity in 6-1 drubbing of the Italian club.

“The coaches aren’t the ones who win games, it’s the top-quality players that Barcelona have in their ranks that do”. Messi, starting his first match since a knee ligament injury at the end of September, showed his appetite with a drive that was clawed away by Szczesny and a shot narrowly wide having been put through Sergio Busquets inside nine minutes. The team are enjoying themselves, that is undoubtable.

And he, Suarez and Messi have now scored 119 goals in the calendar year. “He is like a talisman because he brings so much positivity and intensity to our play and he is crucial when you consider, on top of that, his quality”. “I am always in favour of improving things and we will talk about that when we reach the transfer window”.

In the 90th minute, Edin Dzeko scored a consolation goal for the visitors after missing a penalty in the 82nd minute. Prior to kick-off Luis Enrique stressed the importance of his side maintaining their tremendous run of form but this result was never really in doubt.

Real Sociedad’s players won’t have had a wink of sleep on Friday night as they came to terms with the prospect of facing a recovered Lionel Messi, a clinical Luis Suarez and a genius Neymar. Barcelona discovered they had qualified from Group E before they had even kicked a ball at the Camp Nou, the 1-1 draw between BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen in Belarus ensuring their passage.

Barca have now scored 14 goals and conceded just one while easing past Real Madrid, Roma and Real Sociedad in the space of eight days, but Luis Enrique said his team’s best moment of the season has yet to arrive. “We’re at a great level, that’s something that interests me”.

“I feel good, very happy for all we are doing”, Neymar said.

“I hope that can happen, but it’s not something that we are going to obsess over”, he told Daily Mail’s Pete Jenson.