Luis Suarez’s brace earned Barcelona a 2-1 victory over Las Palmas on Saturday, but the match was overshadowed by Lionel Messi’s knee injury.
Jordi Alba failed to recover from a neck injury in time for the visit of the new boys and was La Blaugrana’s fourth major absence after Claudio Bravo, Dani Alves and Andres Iniesta, although the latter pair were named as substitutes.
Las Palmas, meanwhile, were unchanged from their midweek 2-0 victory over Sevilla, with striking talisman Sergio Araujo returning to Barca for the first time, having spent the 2012-13 season on loan with their ‘B’ team.
Another miserable matchday seemed to be on the horizon for Barca, fresh off their 4-1 defeat at Celta Vigo, as Messi was forced to leave the match inside just 10 minutes after he came off worse for wear from a collision with Pedro Bigas, who knocked his left knee at Javi Varas’ near post.
Munir El Haddadi was the man considered worthy of replacing the Argentine, and while eyebrows may have initially been raised, the forward was the catalyst for the hosts’ opening goal as his backheel allowed Sergi Roberto to send a cross into the box for Luis Suarez to head home.
Shortly after the restart, Suarez doubled Barca’s lead as he smashed a finish into the roof of Varas’ net from a cross helped on by Sergio Busquets’ dummy near the penalty spot.
Barca were then presented with a glorious change to make it 3-0 when Antolin Alcaraz handballed in the box, only for the newly-bald Neymar to blaze over from 12 yards.
That wasn’t to say Marc-Andre ter Stegen didn’t have everything his own way as he tipped over David Simon’s piledriver from distance, before executing a similar save later on.
The chances continued to churn out, with Neymar’s shooting boots nowhere to be seen as he scooped over a close-range effort from the left-hand byline, while Simon failed to beat the German from a one-on-one.
However, Ter Stegen was eventually beaten as Javier Mascherano was pickpocketed by Nabil El Zhar, who promptly squared the ball to Viera, the attacker in turn cutting inside and seeing his effort deflect past the shot-stopper.
Barcelona 2-1 Las Palmas
Suarez 25, 54 (B) Viera 88 (LP)
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Bartra, Pique, Mascherano, Adriano (Gumbau 80); Busquets, Sergi, Rakitic; Messi (Munir 10), Suarez, Neymar
Las Palmas: Varas; Simon, Bigas, Aythami, Alcaraz, Castellano; Roque (Valeron 68), Hernan (Culio 57), Wakaso; Viera, Araujo (El Zhar 67)
Referee: De Burgos Bengoetxea
