Leo Messi celebrates with his teammates after scoring Barça's third goal against Sporting Lisbon

FC Barcelona scored a conclusive away win over Sporting Lisbon (5-2) yesterday on the fifth date of the Champions League’s group phase. The blaugranas will finish top of their group and thus will play the return leg of their first knockout tie at home.

Barça showed their superiority over Sporting right from the start of the game, once again finding their main attacking asset in Lionel Messi. Leo scored one goal and created another for Thierry Henry before being subsituted in the 57th minute when the scoreline was already 3-0 (the other goal had come through Piqué). Sporting scored two straight goals shortly after thanks to Veloso and Liedson, but an own goal by Caneira and a penalty scored by Bojan rounded off a wide win for Pep Guardiola’s men, who will now be able to focus on the upcoming run of difficult domestic league games against Sevilla, Valencia, Real Madrid and Villarreal.

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