'Messi is the reason Barça have the points'

There was a sense that justice had been done in the FC Barcelona camp after the Catalan club came from 2-1 down to overcome a clever, stubborn and livewire FC Spartak Moskva side. The visitors' Kirill Kombarov begged to differ but conceded that ultimately Lionel Messi, scorer of the last two goals in the UEFA Champions League Group G opener, was the difference between the teams.

Tello, Barcelona forward
It was vital to begin the group with a home win and we came into this match on the back of a good league performance. Now we must try to use this win to have a positive knock-on effect on our next Liga game this weekend.

Spartak were a very tough proposition and they managed to make our lives difficult. When they defended they did so in numbers and when they attacked they did so extremely well. As soon as we got the second goal we were back in the game and the winner gave us justice because we deserved the victory.

The Champions League is a tournament which fills you with pride and it's fantastic to have been chosen in the starting lineup. I want to thank the coach for his confidence.

Daniel Alves, Barcelona defender
The reason the game became so tough was that they really had two chances and they converted both of them. When you come out to defend like Spartak did, it becomes much easier when you get in front on the counterattack.

All that was left for us was to stem the tide, work and work some more – and thankfully we got the victory we struggled for. Tello is somebody we are all delighted with because the more minutes he plays, the more influence he's having on our performances. He makes football fun.

Kirill Kombarov, Spartak defender
Although we conceded the first goal we overcame that and quickly enough we were back in the game. We were playing the way the coach wanted us to. We should definitely have closed things out when we scored the second goal to gain the lead but then Messi came up with two of his own. He's the reason Barça have the points tonight.

If we play this way regularly and concentrate just a bit harder, implement what the coach asked us to, then we should qualify. We did well today, no doubt, and the result has gone against us but this was a good performance.

Aiden McGeady, Spartak midfielder
It was a very difficult game. We were close to winning. Close, but you always know Barcelona will have chances. They came in the second half – and they took them.

We played well. We passed the ball quickly and well. Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world, have the best players, so that's been the main deciding factor. This could have been a good start but it's very difficult to come to the Camp Nou and win.

Personally, I think I performed OK. You're never going to see much of the ball and I didn't have one-on-one situations, it was just really trying to keep the ball. I set up the second goal, so overall I was okay, but all of us are disappointed we didn't come out of this performance with something.