Barcelona played Athletic Bilbao for the third time in succession -the last two games being in the Spanish Supercup games which Barcelona had lost quite comprehensively.
The first game of the new La Liga season went the other way – Suarez scored the only goal of the game.
Messi made an inauspicious start by missing a penalty early on.

Elsewhere in the La Liga arch rivals Real Madrid drew against Sporting Gijon in their opening game.
Ronaldo also missed a penalty – though not in the same sense as Messi.The ref did not give a penalty for this incident in the penalty area..