Barcelona 3-1 Borussia Dortmund: 5 Talking Points | UEFA Champions League 2019/2020

Barcelona eased to a comfortable 3-1 victory against Dortmund, with goals from Suarez, Messi, and Griezmann rendering Jadon Sancho's late strike to be nothing more than a mere consolation.

The last time the Catalans lined up in front of their fans, they put in a tepid display in an entertaining goalless draw with Slavia Prague and it can be argued that Barcelona were lucky to escape with a point on Matchday 4.

As such, they were eager to make amends and barring a brief period at the start of the game when Dortmund threatened, it was largely cruise control for Barcelona. The 90,000 fans inside the Camp Nou would have gone home very satisfied with what was an improved display from their side.

Here, we shall be highlighting five talking points from the Group F fixture.

#5 Barcelona finish top of their group yet again

FC Barcelona v Borussia Dortmund: Group F - UEFA Champions League

Barcelona came into the game on eight points, one clear of Borussia Dortmund and four ahead of Inter Milan in third. With this in mind, Ernesto Valverde would have sought to pick up maximum points to ensure their passage into the next round.

His wards did not disappoint and Barca's victory means that not only did they qualify to the next round, it also saw them achieve the unique distinction of having finished top of their Champions League group in each season since the 2007/2008 campaign.

This is an incredible run spanning 13 consecutive seasons and it would help Barcelona potentially avoid the heavy hitters in favour of a less formidable opponent in the next round.

With Champions League qualification done and dusted, there would be less pressure on Barcelona heading into their final fixture against Inter Milan away at the San Siro. Valverde would now turn his attention to domestic action in LaLiga starting with this weekend's crunch fixture away to Atletico Madrid.

Also check out: Champions League Schedule Champions League table Champions league top scorers

#4 Jadon Sancho passes Camp Nou audition

Jadon Sancho has been nothing short of a revelation since joining Borussia Dortmund from Manchester City and he had his breakout campaign last season when he was the star of a BVB side that pushed Bayern Munich in a tense Bundesliga race.

The England international weighed in with 12 goals and a league-high 14 assists from 34 Bundesliga games and this form caught attention around Europe, with many of the world's biggest teams speculated to be interested in his services.

This season, the 18-year-old has continued from where he left off and has starred with four goals and six assists from 10 league matches.

However, a criticism levelled at Sancho is that he has yet to truly make a mark in the Champions League and his return of just one goal and two assists from his first 11 matches in the competition belied his league form.

Against Barcelona, he was surprisingly started from the bench, but upon his introduction at half-time, Sancho went about showing Lucien Favre the error of his ways and injected much-needed life into what was a pedestrian Dortmund attack.

He capped a fine performance with a well-taken goal, which was symbolic, as earlier in the day he had lost out on the 2019 Golden Boy award to Joao Felix, which in the opinion of many people was an injustice.

Furthermore, Barcelona are rumoured to be one of the clubs interested in his services and with the Barcelona hierarchy closely watching, Jadon Sancho undoubtedly passed his audition in front of his potential employers.

#3 Ousmane Dembele's injury woes continue

Ever since arriving in Barcelona for a then club-record fee in the summer of 2017, injuries have been unkind to Dembele and have played a major part in his stop-start Barcelona spell.

Beyond his injury problems, the French international has also been accused of a lack of professionalism and over two years into his Camp Nou career, fans are still waiting for the real Dembele to turn up.

Antoine Griezmann's struggles have afforded Dembele some playing time in recent weeks and he was handed a start in the game against his former team.

Despite showing flashes of his undoubted talent, the 22-year-old was wasteful in possession on many occasions and failed to make the most of the opportunities that came his way.

He would have, however, been confident of making the most of his time on the field, but a familiar sight occurred to end his night.

Barcelona fans are well used to seeing Dembele turn up with injuries and it would not have been much of a surprise when they saw him limping with what appeared to be a right thigh injury.

He left the field with tears in his eyes and while the Camp Nou crowd might have applauded him off the field, Ousmane Dembele would know that time is running out for him to come good.

#2 More misery for Favre and Dortmund

Following on from their intense Bundesliga tilt last season, Borussia Dortmund splashed the cash in the market, spending over €200m to bring in fine players like Thorgan Hazard, Julian Brandt, Nico Schulz, and Mats Hummels to the Signal Iduna Park.

It was expected that they would build on last season's display and go one better, but despite a good start, things have started falling apart for Lucien Favre's men.

They have been in indifferent form of late and followed up their humiliating 4-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Der Klassiker with a disappointing 3-3 draw at home to bottom-placed Paderborn.

The North Rhine-Westphalia outfit showed great determination to fight back from a 2-0 deficit to win Inter Milan last time out in the Champions League, but their defeat against Barcelona leaves them in a precarious situation heading into matchday 6.

Dortmund do not have fate in their hands and would hope Barcelona do them a favour against Inter Milan if they are to have any hopes of progressing to the next round.

Inter Milan's superior head-to-head record means that BVB have to better their result and seeing that the game is essentially a dead rubber match to Barcelona, Lucien Favre could see his side drop into the Europa League come next year.

#1 Lionel Messi, the record-breaker

For the first 25 minutes of the game, Barcelona threatened, but they simply could not break down a resolute Dortmund defence.

It took a moment of Messi magic to penetrate their backline, with the Argentine maestro finding Luis Suarez with a pristine throughball which was finished with aplomb by the Uruguayan only for the linesman to correctly flag him off for a marginal offside.

A few minutes later, the pair combined in an almost identical fashion to produce the same result, but this time around, the goal was legitimate and Suarez got his 10th goal of the season.

Luis Suarez then turned provider just four minutes after putting Barcelona ahead when he set Messi up in front of goal and with the Barcelona No. 10 in such position, there was only going to be one outcome.

On what was his 700th Barcelona appearance, Lionel Messi scored his record-extending 613th goal for the club and unsurprisingly, his latest strike put him once again in the record books.

Having never scored against them before, Borussia Dortmund became the 34th different club he has scored against in the Champions League, moving him one clear of Real Madrid legends Raul Gonzalez and Cristiano Ronaldo.

He could yet steer further clear of the duo if he scores against Inter Milan on Matchday 6, as he is yet to find the back of the net against the Italians in five previous attempts.

Lionel Messi's record-breaking day was, however, not over and he still found time to hit the post with a routine freekick as well as register his 259th Barcelona assist for Griezmann's first Champions League goal for the Blaugrana.

On what was an eventful night for the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, the only blot on his performance came when he was booked for simulation early in the second half after dribbling across the entire Dortmund defence.