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| Pique gestures to the crowd after he scored the opening goal of Barcelona's 2014-15 Champions League campaign |
Only a brilliant late save from Barcelona's debutant goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen prevented Barcelona dropping two points at the Camp Nou against Apoel.
The club's relentless production line of young players ticked off another couple of teenage debuts as Luis Enrique gave 19-year-olds Sergi Samper and El Haddadi Munir their first Champions League starts but the understrength team selection made for a nervy 1-0 win sealed only by Gerard Pique's first half header.
Coach Luis Enrique marked his first game in charge in Europe by blooding the two teenagers and by giving goalkeeper ter Stegen his first start and he was the later hero saving from Gustavo Manduca.
El Haddadi Munir has now debuted for Barça, Spain and in the European Cup in the last month and for Samper it was a European start before he has even played a league game.
There were seven products of the youth academy Barcelona will have to rely on more than ever if the Court of Arbitration in Sport upholds the FIFA ban on them making transfers for a year, on the pitch, and there was even a former Barça youth player on the Apoel side with Urko Pardo.
He said before the game that he had grown accustomed to saving Messi shots coming up through La Masia and he was tested on 11 minutes palming the Argentine’s free-kick away for a corner. Messi then dribbled across the face of the Apoel penalty area before setting up Neymar who shot wide.
On 28 minutes the breakthrough came when Messi whipped in a free-kick from the right-hand channel and Gerard Pique got in front of Vinicius, much to the defender’s visible fury, to head past Pardo.
Messi looks back to his sonic best and he played the pass of the night to Neymar five minutes before the break. Neymar returned the favour but Messi’s shot was blocked by Pardo.
With Barcelona in total control they started the second half parked in the Apoel half and with goalkeeper Ter Stegen at times situated 10 yards outside of his penalty area. He had already headed one long ball forward away from outside the penalty box. But there was a dangerous complacency to the ease with which they were dictating play and Apoel grew in confidence.
There was still time for Mario Sergio to save Messi's goalbound shot and Apoel to so nearly steal a point only for Ter Stegen to deny them.
It had also been a night for anniversaries with Messi marking 14 years at Barcelona and Barcelona supporters remembering former coach Tito Vilanova, who would have been 46 on Wednesday. Both are in their own way symbols of Barcelona’s youth system and it was La Masia that had benefited most from this victory.
Beating the Cypriot champions 1-0 will not reverberate around the rest of Europe but Luis Enrique will count the debuts to his young stars as victories and be satisfied to have seem them take all three points.
