Messi misses allow minnows avoid battering in Barcelona

BARCELONA had to settle for just two goals despite battering Plzen in a predictably one-sided Champions League clash at the Nou Camp.

Andres Iniesta and David Villa scored at either end of a game in which the hosts could have got close to double figures had they taken their full quota of chances.

Lionel Messi twice hit the post on a night when he left the Plzen defence punch-drunk but was simply unable to find an accurate finish, often guilty of over-playing, while the visitors defended at times as though their lives depended on it.