Barcelona were far from convincing against Spartak Moscow in their opening UEFA Champions League encounter at the Nou Camp, needing two goals from Lionel Messi to secure a nervy 3-2 victory.
After Cristian Tello had given the Spanish giants the lead, Spartak hit back with two goals of their own, first a Daniel Alves own goal, and then a nice strike from midfielder Romulo, just before the hour mark.
Messi, however, like he always does, came to his side's rescue, with two goals in the space of eight minutes -- the 72nd and 80th, to save his side from an embarassing defeat.
"It's not easy to win a game like that when the other team sits back and defends," Messi told UEFA's official website.
"They have very fast forwards and played well on the counterattack."
Messi said he was disappointed to see Gerard Pique pick up an injury early on in the game, forcing Tito Vilanova to make a substitution and bring on former Arsenal player Alex Song.
"It's a shame about Pique's injury. He is important for us, just like Carles Puyol is, but we have plenty of players in the squad, plus the reserves."
Vilanova was happy with the way his players reacted after going behind. "The performance was good, but not the best," Vilanova said of his first game as the Barcelona manager. "We played well, opening up the pitch.
"The best thing was the reaction of the players. It's a good feeling because it's important to start with a win. They were difficult to unlock and made things hard for us with a couple of counterattacks.
"We had a lot of chances. Teams only employ this kind of approach when they play us."
Goalscorer Tello believed Barca deserved the three points. "It was vital to begin the group with a home win and we came into this match on the back of a good league performance," the winger said. Now we must try to use this win to have a positive knock-on effect on our next La Liga game this weekend.
"Spartak were a very tough proposition and they managed to make our lives difficult. When they defended they did so in numbers and when they attacked they did so extremely well. As soon as we got the second goal we were back in the game and the winner gave us justice because we deserved the victory."
