That’s all for now. Do check back later for a full match report and thanks as always for following along with us.
Updated
A quick refresher of the goals: with Papadopoulos putting Leverkusen ahead in the 22nd minute, an advantage that stood for nearly an hour before a pair of goals in a 92-second span between Sergi Roberto (in the 80th) and Luis Suarez (82nd). And now a look at the statistical post-mortem.
Full-time: Barcelona 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Well, it’s hard to say Barcelona deserved it, but they were at their best when the circumstances called for it. One must also look back at Roger Schmidt’s curious 54th-minute substitution of Chicharito, who had done so much to disrupt and unsettle a Barcelona back four that looked, well, disrupted and unsettled pretty much until he came off.
Updated
90 min+2: Barca have kept possession throughout stoppage time, mostly working it up the left flank in faux attack before pulling back at the final stage, the result all but in hand.
90 min: Fourth official signals for three minutes of added time.
89 min: Another ball into the area to Suarez, who can’t corral it before it’s cleared to Busquets, who’s hacked down by a frustrated Kampl. Easy yellow.
88 min: Suarez down in a heap after a Leverkusen foul near the halfway line. Tick ... tick ... tick ...
86 min: Barcelona very nearly have a third on the counter-attack when Suarez finds Munir in acres of space, yet the Spaniard’s shot sails wide.
GOAL! Barcelona 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Suarez, 82 min)
If Barca’s first was a workmanlike grinder, their second in 92 seconds is a world class finish: Suarez placing it top shelf out of Leno’s reach off a nifty pass from Munir.
Updated
GOAL! Barcelona 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Sergi Roberto, 80 min)
Another build-up for Barca up the left side comes into bloom when Sergi Roberto plays to Jordi Alba, who plays into Munir in the center of the area. His initial shot is saved, but Sergi following his run pushes it into the goal for the equalizer.
Updated
79 min: Another chance by Neymar at the top of the area snuffed out. Seems it’s just not the hosts’ night.
76 min: Ball headed to the foot of Neymar in the area but he misses as the Leverkusen defenders close in.
75 min: Some extracurriculars here near the Leverkusen goal between Tah and Jordi Alba and it’s the Barca man who’s shown yellow. Hilbert on for Donati, a right back for right back switch.
74 min: Ball played into the area to Neymar, but a gaggle of Leverkusen players close in quickly to snuff it out.
72 min: Barca’s third and final substitution: Sergi Roberto on for Rakitic.
71 min: Neymar’s corner initially appears harmless, but it’s poorly cleared and Pique is able to head an attempt on goal into Leno’s waiting hands.
70 min: Rakitic with a flick to Suarez, but Suarez’s left-footed shot is deflected out. Corner to Barca.
69 min: Suarez surges up the right flank as the through ball is sent but the flag goes up and he’s ruled offside. Well done by Papadopoulos to hold his line.
68 min: The goal-scorer Papadopoulos gets too little of the ball during a clattering challenge of Neymar at midfield and sees yellow.
67 min: Two near-chances for Bayer at the top of the area but both times Barca’s back four close in the nick of time.
65 min: A second sub for Bayer as 19-year-old Julian Brandt enters for Bellarabi, who’s been excellent today.
64 min: Barca win a free kick from roughly 25 yards out. Neymar steps up and curls it toward the right post but it’s fired just right of the post.
62 min: Bayer overrunning Barca up the left flank but can’t assemble a chance. Now Munir El Haddadi enters for Sandro Ramirez, Barca’s second sub.
60 min: Jordi Alba on for Iniesta as the armband changes hands.
59 min: Suarez flies up the left side and looks to play a ball into the area – not certain to whom – but Tah intercepts on the run. Jordi Alba due to come on at the next stoppage.
57 min: Neymar! Something from nothing, turning on a deflected shot from Rakutic, but sending it just wide of the post. Barca seem to be knocking on the door here.
54 min: First substitution of the game: Stefan Kiessling on for Hernandez. A bit of a curious move here by Roger Schmidt. Yes, Chicharito missed that chance badly moments ago, but he’s offered so much pace and given Barca’s back four such trouble.
52 min: Neymar with a bad giveaway on the attack, but Leverkusen give it right back and Sandro finds himself with the ball, options around him and loads of space on the edge of the area. Opts to fire away at the far post and sends it wide. Barca still 1-0 down but playing more off the front foot in the early stages of the second half.
50 min: A massive opportunity for Bayer: Kampl up the right flank to Bellarabi, whose gorgeous pass to Hernandez – surely a second goal! – sails high into the night over the crossbar. Just an awful, ghastly miss.
48 min: Iniesta through to Sandro, but Tah casually dismisses him off the ball.
47 min: No changes at half for either side.
Updated
46 min: We’re off and running in the second half. Will Luis Enrique’s half-time talk awake Barca from their apparent slumber or can the visiting Germans close the show?
And now to the photo that’s got everyone talking. Why is it Messi’s right knee that appears to be injured when it’s the left knee that’s been widely reported to have been injured?
— Adil ✌ عـــادلـ (@Barzaboy) September 29, 2015
Dial up Occam’s razor on this one. John Barry echoes what seems to be the consensus opinion: that somehow the image was inverted before going viral.
@bryanagraham Presumably the picture is inverted because (according to you guys, at least), Messi did injure his left knee.
— John Barry (@johnjbarry) September 29, 2015
Indeed, my eagle-eyes colleague Tom Lutz points to multiple photos of Messi that show he typically parts his hair on the opposite side as the above photo.
Updated
A look at the half-time stats. Barcelona dominating possession as is their habit but with little to show for it.
Half-time: Barcelona 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Frankly, it could have been even worse for the hosts, who were disorganized in the back uncharacteristically inert in the midfield and received little help from the three-man front of Sandro, Suarez and Neymar. Bayer answered the bell, full stop. Another 45 minutes to play but no question the German side are deserved leaders at the break.
45 min: Fourth official signals for two minutes of added time. Eerie silence over the crowd at the Camp Nou.
Updated
44 min: Bayer appear to be sitting back a bit waiting out the half-time whistle.
42 min: Well taken by Rakitic directly on the goal but saved by Leno.
41 min: Neymar tripped up, Bender shown yellow and Barca will have a free kick from a dangerous area 25 yards out.
39 min: A wonderful ball through from Rakitic to Neymar, who beats Leno to the far post but it deflects off the post back into play. Sandro right there for a sure equalizer but Papadopoulos intervenes in the nick of time.
Updated
37 min: Neymar down in the area and appeals to referee Martin Atkinson for a dive ... but he’s shown yellow for simulation. A good call.
36 min: Bellarabi beats Pique in the area and only a clumsy finish upstairs that Ter Stegen easily saves prevents a 2-nil scoreline. Shoot it low and it’s a goal, but how easy that is to say from behind a keyboard.
34 min: The prevailing uneasy din from the Nou Camp crowd would seem to confirm Barca’s worst fears: that they are in with a Bayer side more than content to capitalize on a weakened host. So absent are Suarez and Neymar they may as well appear on milk cartons, while Bayer look inspired and far more incisive in attack.
32 min: Wendell down after getting absolutely trucked by his own keeper. Yikes. Also, seems like Mascherano was shown yellow for his tackle minutes prior.
29 min: A note from Peter Oh, via email, during the stoppage in play.
Hi Bryan,
I don’t mean to deflect attention from the action on the pitch, but can we talk about Messi’s knee injury for a moment? I saw replays of the impact, in which Messi kicked the ball under duress with his left leg and met a massive opposing force in the form of a defender’s boot arriving at high speed. I assumed he hurt his left knee but in the photo below, it’s his right knee that is in a cast. Do I not know my right from my left anymore, or is this an unusual injury?
Sincerely,
Peter
We’ll address further at half-time but welcoming comments/thoughts/conspiracy theories from the gallery.
Updated
27 min: Lightning-quick counter-attack with Hernandez going through, but Bellarabi and Mascherano have banged knees on a collision and play has stopped with both players supine on the grass awaiting treatment. Both will exit momentarily but should be fine to return.
24 min: Barca stunned, the crowd even more so.
GOAL! Barcelona 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Papadopoulos, 22 min)
The corner is sent toward the near post by Çalhanoglu and it’s headed in Papadopoulos! Bayer are ahead! A tremendously weak effort by the defending Mathieu. Ter Stegen and Suarez screaming at one another afterward but the blame truly falls on Mathieu and the keeper himself. Deafening silence at the Camp Nou.
Updated
21 min: Bayer win a corner when Bellarabi’s cross caroms off Pique.
19 min: Consecutive chances by Bayer’s Kampl in quick succession. First he pulls up short in the area and fires a left-footed shot that freezes Ter Stegen and sails wide of the far post. Then seconds after the restart Kampl draws even nearer to the goal but is dispossessed. Barcelona showing cracks at the back, though Bayer have crucially been unable to capitalize.
17 min: Chicharito finds his way into the area with space but he’s dispossessed. It’s early but he’s been troubling Barca’s back four early.
14 min: Deft interplay between Iniesta and Suarez up the left flank, but Iniesta overcooks a through pass and Bayer escapes danger. Not a clear-cut chance as it turned out, but how nearly that could have been a goal.
13 min: Leverkusen, who’s been pressing high all match, given acres of space by Barca in the final third and finally take another chance, but Bellarabi’s attempt sails high.
10 min: Sandro with the best chance of the match so far but a lunging Leno save denies him. What a chance for the Brazilian who will attempt to fill Messi’s boots today.
8 min: Bayer wins a free kick roughly 30 yards from the goal and it’s set-piece specialist Calhanoglu who will take it. It’s curled over the wall harmlessly into Ter Stegen’s hands.
7 min: Barcelona keeping possession now and moving it up the pitch with patience, but Neymar tries to find Suarez in the final third and it’s clubbed 40 yards downfield toward the Barca goal. Now they’ll start again from the back.
5 min: First chance for Barca as Rakitic runs onto a cross by Neymar. Saved by Leno. A fast if not frenetic start here.
4 min: Neymar’s corner is low and easily cleared from danger.
3 min: Rakitic seeks out Sandro who looks to make the final pass to Suarez, but Leverkusen manage to clear and Barca has won the first corner of the match.
2 min: Barca immediately try to work it down the left flank but are dispossessed – not without a little contact but no whistle – and the ball is played immediately downfield and Leverkusen are threatening. Just like that it’s worked inside to Javier Hernandez, who uncorks a shot from point-blank range that demands a hair-trigger save from Ter Stegen.
1 min: And we’re off! Barcelona attacking from left to right in traditional home kits, Leverkusen from right to left in all-white strips.
The teams are emerging from the tunnel. A packed house at the Camp Nou awaits. Not much longer now.
Updated
Here’s a look at today’s teams.
Barcelona
XI: Ter Stegen; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Mathieu; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Sandro, Suarez, Neymar
Subs: Masip, Douglas, Bartra, Alba, Gumbau, Sergi, Munir
Bayer Leverkusen
XI: Leno; Donati, Tah, Papadopoulos, Wendell; Kramer, Bender; Kampl, Çalhanoglu, Bellarabi; J. Hernández
Subs: Krešić, Ramalho, Kiessling, Hilbert, Mehmedi, Boenisch, Brandt
Hello and welcome to today’s Champions League group-stage match between Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen at the Camp Nou. The big story is of course the absence of Lionel Messi, who is out for up to eight weeks after tearing a ligament in his knee during Sunday’s 2-1 win over Las Palmas. A shot of Messi arriving at the stadium to support the team has predictably gone viral over the past hour.
— Adil ✌ عـــادلـ (@Barzaboy) September 29, 2015
More news including the teams coming shortly.
Bryan will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s Raphael Honigstein with something on Bayer’s plans for Barcelona:
Roger Schmidt is only three years older than Luis Enrique, his opposite number in the dugout when Bayer Leverkusen take on Barcelona at Camp Nou on Tuesday night. But in terms of their managerial background, they could not be much further apart. Whereas Lucho followed Pep Guardiola as the coach of Barcelona B in 2008, Schmidt, a lower division player of modest achievements, took on his first job as part-time coach of the sixth division Delbrücker SC while he was working as an engineer processing raw materials and working in quality control for a car-parts manufacturer in Paderborn in 2005.
Promotion brought him to the attention of a bigger fifth division club, Preußen Münster, two years later. Schmidt was offered a full-time role, took Münster to the fourth division, and then returned to Paderborn, albeit as the manager of the city’s Bundesliga 2 team. One decent campaign with SC Paderborn was enough to convince the RB Salzburg sporting director Ralf Rangnick, the high-priest of pressing football, that the self-taught Schmidt espoused the same footballing ideas. The latter had adopted a system of collective ball hunting having watched La Liga sides in great detail. “Most of my training exercises are influenced by those in Spain,” Schmidt revealed.
In his second year in Austria, Schmidt broke the league championship record with 105 points and was unlucky not to advance to the quarter-final of the Europa League after destroying Ajax 6-1 on aggregate in an earlier round. Bayer Leverkusen, on the look out for an inspirational coach to shake up a dressing room comfortable with finishing in the top third of the table, talked him into joining in 2014.
