BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Lionel Messi opened the scoring to lead Barcelona on Tuesday to a 5–1 win over Hungarian Ferencvaros in their first Champions League match since the shameful 8–2 loss to Bayern Munich.
Ansu Fati, Philippe Coutinho, Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé also scored to give Barcelona the inaugural victory in the organization G. Ihor Kharatin scored Ferencvaros’ goal on a penalty that took out the red card directly to the blue-grana defender Gerard Piqué about 20 minutes from the end.
In the organizing match, Juventus beat Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 with a pair of goals from striker Alvaro Morata.
Barcelona, which has been looking to win their first name in the Champions League since 2015, was defeated by Bayern in August in the quarter-finals of last season. The defeat crowned the first un nameless season of the Catalan club from 2007-08. Since then, Messi has been in a crisis, forced to stay despite a preference to leave, and former gamer Ronald Koeman taking over as coach with the task of reorganizing the team.
Messi opened the scoring by converting a penalty in the 27th minute after being knocked down by a defender in the area, his season goal in all competitions, prolonged his streak with at least one purpose in the Champions League for 16 in a row. He scored 116 goals in the most productive European club competition.
Fati, 17, came forward with a big touch close to 42 after a well-placed pass from Frenkie de Jong, then scored Coutinho’s goal with a big backward pass at 52. Coutinho was on loan to Bayern last season and scored two goals for the German club in an 8–2 win over Barcelona in Lisbon.
The understudy Pedri scored closely at 82 on his Champions League debut, and Dembélé arrived from the bench to seal the scoring at 89 on his first goal for Barcelona in more than a year.
Barcelona survived an early scare when Ferencvos scored in the tenth, but the purpose was overturned by an offside via Tokmac Nguen. Visitors were rejected through the wood 10 minutes later with a shot from striker Isael.
Barcelona won despite betting on a player in 68th position, while Piqué ejected by pushing Tokmac Nguen into the area to avoid a counterattack. Piqué will miss Barcelona’s stopover at Juventus next week.
U. S. defender Sergio Gest and Portuguese striker Francisco Trinco went to Barcelona, while Antoine Griezmann and Sergio Busquets stayed on the bench.
Barcelona receives Real Madrid on Saturday in the first “classic” of the Spanish league of the season.
Ferencvaros returns to the Champions League for the first time since 1995, after passing 4 qualifying rounds to succeed in the organizing phase.
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