Barcelona put their weekend humiliation at the hands of Hercules behind them with two-goal Lionel Messi inspiring a 5-1 Champions League rout of Panathinaikos yesterday in their Group D opener. <table style="width: 330px; height: 42px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="330" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/sep/07football.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr> <td> Barcelona star Lionel Messi</td></tr></tbody></table> Barcelona fell behind to a Sidney Govou goal on 20 minutes but responded with three goals in 24 minutes with Argentine Messi scoring twice, in the 21st and 45th minutes, and Spanish star David Villa netting his first Champions League goal for Barcelona. Pedro Rodriguez and Brazilian Dani Alves scored late goals to complete the rout while Messi came agonisingly close to a hat-trick missing a penalty and hitting both posts in the second half. It was a big win from the 2009 champions as they gave the perfect reply to Saturday's painful 2-0 league defeat to promoted Hercules at Camp Nou. Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola made five changes to the team that crashed to the Hercules with Spanish World Cup winning quartet Xavi, Sergi Busquets, Pedro and Carles Puyol coming in. Messi saw a header saved in the second minute and then set up the next move sliding a brilliant pass to Andres Iniesta who laid the ball off for Xavi metres from goal. Xavi seemed certain to score but his shot with the outside of his right foot was too close to goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas who parried well. The Greek visitors were hanging on but somehow conjured up a goal with their first attack of the match on 20 minutes.

Valencia United season finished after horror break

Barcelona put their weekend humiliation at the hands of Hercules behind them with two-goal Lionel Messi inspiring a 5-1 Champions League rout of Panathinaikos yesterday in their Group D opener.

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