Madrid (AFP) – Luis Suarez rounded off a stirring fightback by European champions Barcelona as they shrugged off the absence of the injured Lionel Messi to beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 on Wednesday.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos had headed the visitors into a deserved halftime lead as Barca struggled to open up the Germans without Messi’s magic touch. However, despite Barcelona also losing Andres Iniesta to injury, Suarez turned the game around in the final 10 minutes as Sergi Roberto tapped home the rebound after the Uruguayan’s initial effort had been saved. The former Liverpool striker then thumped home a stunning effort to hand Barca a hard-fought three points two minutes later.

Victory takes Barca top of Group E, a point ahead of Leverkusen and BATE Borisov, who were 3-2 winners over Roma on Wednesday.

Leverkusen made the most of Barca’s edgy start as former Real Madrid striker Javier Hernandez forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen into a smart save at his near post inside two minutes. Ivan Rakitic had Barca’s first effort on target, but the Croatian placed his header too close to Bernd Leno.

Sandro Ramirez was the man given the unenviable task of replacing Messi and nearly repaid coach Luis Enrique’s faith as he played a lovely one-two with Suarez before Leno pulled off a spectacular save to turn the 20-year-old’s effort behind. However, Leverkusen’s speed on the break was a constant threa,t and Kevin Kampl should have done better on two occasions as he curled the ball wide and was then denied by a brave block from Gerard Pique with an even clearer sight of goal.

Leverkusen finally took a deserved lead on 22 minutes when Hakan Calhanoglu’s brilliant in-swinging corner caught Ter Stegen off guard and Papadopoulos nodded home.

The German international made amends moments later as he stood up to prevent Karim Bellarabi from doubling the visitors’ lead.

Much had been expected of Neymar in Messi’s absence, but the Brazilian had been kept very quiet until his deflected effort hit the post six minutes before the break. Sandro’s follow-up effort somehow deflected off Papadopoulos and behind for a corner.

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Hernandez had a golden chance to put the game beyond the hosts at the start of the second half but blazed over when unmarked just 12 yards out. At the other end, the chances began to arrive for Barca as Sandro again fired wide before Neymar pushed an effort off target.

However, the bad news continued for Luis Enrique when Iniesta pulled up with a muscle injury just after the hour mark to add to the Catalans’ mounting injury crisis.

Yet, Barca reacted like champions to turn the game around as Roberto pounced after Leno had saved Suarez’s initial effort to level 10 minutes from time. And moments later, substitute Munir El Haddadi squared for Suarez to smash the ball high past the helpless Leno for a memorable winner.