Lionel Messi gives Barcelona the lead against Juventus (Video)

Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 1-0 lead late in the first half of their Champions League group opener against Juventus.

Barcelona made a lot of headlines over the summer, mostly for the wrong reasons. They sold Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain, then spent the next month tapping up players across Europe, only one of which, Ousmane Dembele, they managed to sign.

But, Super Cup humiliation against Real Madrid notwithstanding, Barca have had an excellent start to the new season, winning three out of three in La Liga without conceding a goal. Their less heralded new signing, Nelson Semedo, has impressed at right-back, while their pressing appeared drastically improved under new manager Ernesto Valverde.

Then, of course, there was Lionel Messi, who scored twice in Barcelona’s first two league matches before bringing his total for the season to five with a hat-trick against Espanyol on Sunday. That match also saw Luis Suarez return from injury and Dembele make his debut after arriving from Borussia Dortmund.

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The team was in good shape, then, heading into the Champions League, but Juventus were a level above any of the Catalan club’s league opponents so far. Juve proved characteristically difficult to break down in the first half, with Barca’s best chances coming via a free-kick after Blaise Matuidi fouled Andres Iniesta at the top of the box, and a mistake by Mattia De Sciglio, who almost played in Dembele before Alex Sandro’s recover tackle.

The breakthrough finally came in the 45th minute, when Messi exchanged passes with Suarez at the top of the box before placing the ball past Gianluigi Buffon into the bottom right corner. The goal was Messi’s first against the Italian keeper, and should force Juventus to take more risks in attack in the second half, giving Messi even more space to exploit on the counter.