Barcelona 2-1 Dynamo Kiev: Messi spot on again as Koeman's men close in on last 16

Barcelona, November 5: Lionel Messi marked his 150th European appearance for Barcelona with a goal as Ronald Koeman's side saw off stubborn opponents Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in Wednesday's entertaining Champions League clash.

The superstar forward scored from the penalty spot for the third Group G game running and Gerard Pique added a second, but only after Barca had been given a number of scares.

Returning goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen produced a handful of top-class saves, the best of the lot to keep out Vitaliy Buyalskiy's free header in the first half, while Tomasz Kedziora had a goal ruled out.

Dynamo named a depleted squad due to a coronavirus outbreak in the camp and pushed their opponents all the way thanks to Viktor Tsygankov's strike 15 minutes from time, though Barca held on to make it nine points from nine.

FULL TIME pic.twitter.com/B3UiAc96Qu

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 4, 2020

Denys Popov tripped Messi in the box early on and the Argentina international tucked the spot-kick away from Ruslan Neshcheret into the bottom-right corner.

Pedri hit the underside of the crossbar after being picked out by Sergino Dest and Antoine Griezmann fired wide from six yards as Barca looked for a quickfire second.

Neshcheret was making only his second senior appearance and kept out a couple of efforts from Messi before half-time, either side of Ter Stegen's reaction stop to deny Buyalskiy.

Barcelona were given a couple of warnings early in the second period as Ter Stegen was equal to Tsygankov from a one-on-one and Kedziora's headed goal was chalked off as a corner had curled out of play.

Vladyslav Supriaha was the next to be thwarted by Ter Stegen, shortly before Neshcheret tipped over Messi's free-kick from the best of his saves in what was turning out to be a battle of the keepers.

Pique thought he had finally killed off Dynamo when guiding Ansu Fati's cross into the back of the net, only for Tsygankov to tap in at the other end after Benjamin Verbic's saved shot rolled into his path.

The visitors could not find a late leveller, though, with the Catalan giants managing the remainder of the game well to all but book a place in the last 16 of the competition.