By Chris Wright
The Champions League farted back into life last night with two last 16 games taking place, one of which being Barcelona’s comfortable win over Bayer Leverkusen at the Bay-Arena.
Alexis Sanchez scored his first ever Champions League goal to put Barca 1-0 up at the interval, the Catalans ending the first half with with 78% of possession, while Leverkusen failed to register any corners, offsides or attempts on goal – on target or otherwise. Not great.
However, the Germans hauled themselves temporarily level when Michal Kadlec equalised shortly after the break, leaping like a Czech salmon to loop a header over Victor Valdes, but Sanchez soon restored Barca’s lead before Lionel Messi (who had earlier seen a rinky-dinky prod hit the post) stabbed a sliding volley past Bernd Leno to flesh out the first-leg victory.
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Photos: PA