A goal by Gerard Pique gave Barcelona a winning start to their UEFA Champions League campaign, but they were far from convincing 1-0 victors at home to Cypriot side APOEL on Wednesday.
Pique headed home the only goal of the game from Lionel Messi’s free-kick midway through the first half, but APOEL managed to subdue a much-changed Barca side, despite the presence of Messi and Neymar up front.
Luis Enrique’s men had debutant Marc-Andre ter Stegen to thank for a fourth consecutive victory to start the season as the German goalkeeper made a flying save in stoppage-time to deny Gustavo Manduca.
Photo: AFP
Barca go to the top of Group F as Ajax held French champions Paris Saint-Germain 1-1 in Amsterdam, with Barcelona set to travel to Paris for their next match.
“We struggled. We tried to move the ball quickly and we didn’t manage to do it,” Barca midfielder Xavi Hernandez told Canal Plus. “It is true we dominated. We tried through the middle and wide, but they defended very well.”
“In the end it was a tiring game, but we have won and we have to treat it like it is. It is always good to start the group stage with three points,” added Xavi, who equaled compatriot Raul’s all-time record of Champions League appearances with 142.
Luis Enrique made nine changes from the side that started Saturday’s 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao, with Messi and Munir El Haddadi the only players to retain their place.
The former RC Celta de Vigo boss defended that decision, but admitted his side had struggled to break down the mass ranks of the APOEL defense.
“I have to manage the squad. I am convinced that if it works we will be successful and we need the help of all the players,” Enrique said. “It worked today because we won and the opponent created very little. We had problems in attack, and we will evaluate and analyze them.”
The number of changes appeared to affect Barca’s rhythm in the first half as they dominated without creating many clear-cut chances from open play.
Messi was first to threaten with a curling free-kick that Urko Pardo in the APOEL goal did well to turn to safety.
Barca then went in front from another Messi free-kick as this time the Argentine’s in-swinging delivery was headed home at the near post by Pique.
Messi and Neymar were continuing to link up well after the former provided the Brazilian with two assists at the weekend and the roles were reversed five minutes before the break when Messi fired Neymar’s cutback toward goal and Pardo made another impressive save.
A similar pattern ensued after the break, but the visitors also provided more of a threat and wasted two half-chances as Tomas de Vincenti saw a goalbound effort deflected wide by Marc Bartra, before Mario Sergio’s cross was cut out by Dani Alves with two unmarked teammates waiting for a better delivery.
Barca should have put the game to bed when Alves picked out Neymar at the back post, but his header was heading off target before Munir turned the ball home and was rightly flagged for offside.
Neymar and Messi were foiled again as the game entered stoppage-time — Neymar’s deflected shot was saved by Pardo and Messi’s followup brilliantly blocked by Sergio.
The hosts could have been made to pay for a lackluster display when Ter Stegen was forced into the first serious save of his Barca career when he tipped Manduca’s well-struck effort behind for a corner.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier