The faces of the Barcelona players on the final whistle told the story – Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba exchanged bemused ‘how did we not win that’ looks and Luis Suarez curled his lip and frowned his brow painfully.
Barcelona had fired 25 shots at the Lyon goal, albeit only five of them on target, but had failed to come away with an away goal on Tuesday night.
Manchester City couldn’t beat Lyon in the group stage and Barcelona had suffered just as much. Barcelona will be favourites in the second leg but the Ligue 1 side have ensured they go to the Camp Nou with, at the very least, a puncher’s chance of making the quarter-finals.
There were 17 shots just in the first half and 13 of them were from Barcelona. No sooner had Cunyet Cakir blown his whistle than Lionel Messi surged at the centre of Lyon’s defence and was brought down by Houssem Aoaur who was booked.
From the kick – now with the customary player lying down behind the wall to make sure Messi doesn’t roll it in as everyone jumps – he floated it over.
Aoaur then showed quick feet at the other end of the pitch and forced Marc-Andre ter Stegen to push the ball out for a corner. It lifted an already noisy Grouparama Arena and the place was really jumping when Martin Terrier’s thunderous drive was pushed on to his bar by Marc-Andre ter Stegen who then gratefully grabbed the ball as it bounced down and spun backwards towards his goal.
Messi then fired over from Jordi Alba’s cross He was furious at his own inaccuracy. Ousmane Dembele was just as guilty firing into Lyon keeper Anthony Lopes’ legs.
Not all attacks ended in shots. Gerard Pique’s brilliant block tackle on Moussa Dembele came just as he was about to test Ter Stegen. No one was more anxious to score than Luis Suarez who came into the game having gone 23 hours and 38 minutes without a Champions League away goal – giving a whole new meaning to the phrase: we could play all day and still not score.
Leo Dubois chopped Suarez down and he was booked but Lyon kept him and Messi and Dembele at bay until the break.
It was almost Sergio Busquets who broke the deadlock just before the half-time whistle but Jason Denayer blocked with his thigh seconds before time was blown.
Memphis Depay had Lyon’s first shot in the second period just wide of Ter Stegen’s far post. The former Manchester United winger was enjoying the anarchic end-to-end.
Clement Lenglet tried to slow him down with a kick to the back of the calf and was lucky not to be booked. The quality did not always match the energy – one lateral free-kick went long and straight out of play – but his direct running was causing Barcelona all sorts of problems and from one cross Ter Stegen had to scramble the ball away.
Barcelona brought Philippe Coutinho on for Dembele with 25 minutes left. They delayed the change while Sergio Roberto changed bloodstained shirt and shorts after he ran into Dubois’ elbow.
Once on Coutinho might have scored immediately but Suarez got to Alba’s cross before him and, leaning back, hit advertising hoardings behind the goal. Coutinho did get his first shot away with Barcelona’s next attack but Lopes got behind it well.
Alba was next to shoot over. Only after a magnificently weighted pass over the top of Lyon’s defence from Suarez found Messi only for a Lyon to poke the ball clear before he could finish.
He was playing one notch down from genius and that much was evident moments later when he went he shaped to curl a shot left-footed into the far top corner and he sliced it slightly putting it high and wide.
On 89 minutes Messi had a free-kick in a good position for his magic left foot but he sent both the kick and the second shot from the rebound into the wall.
He may still be the difference in this tie but there is very little in it ahead of next month’s second leg.