Half-Time Report: Barcelona a goal down against Bayer Leverkusen

Barcelona are succumbing to a 1-0 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen in Tuesday night's Champions League Group E clash at Camp Nou.

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The visitors were quickest off the starting blocks, with Javier Hernandez beating his marker two minutes in and steering Karim Bellarabi's delivery towards goal, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen reacted well to deny his close-range effort.

Just two minutes later Luis Enrique's charges appealed for a handball in the Leverkusen box following a corner, but the claims were waved away as the ball was eventually cleared.

The action continued to flow thick and fast as the hosts pushed forward again, with Bernd Leno palming away Ivan Rakitic's header, before being called into action again in the 10th minute through Sandro's one-on-one shot on goal.

Leverkusen were next to threaten when, just before the quarter-hour mark, Giulio Donati sent a cross into the Barca box which Bellarabi met with a first-time volley, but again Ter Stegen's goal remained untroubled.

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It would not be long before the deadlock was broken, the opening goal coming the way of Leverkusen in the 22nd minute as Hakan Calhanoglu's corner was clinically headed home by Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

Barca set about trying to restore parity and launched into a series of attacks which the visitors managed to repel, before Bellarabi slipped through on goal in the 36th minute and forced a save from Ter Stegen.

With six minutes left in the half, the hosts came within a whisker of levelling the scores when Neymar found space in the box and rifled against the post, before Sandro's rebound was charged down from close range.