Neymar Says Barcelona Fans Made Leverkusen Match Difficult, Missed Lionel Messi

Barcelona star Neymar has criticised the Camp Nou fans who whistled as the Catalans laboured to a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday.

In their first match following star man Lionel Messi being ruled out through injury for up to eight weeks Barca fell 1-0 down early on, but goals from Sergi Roberto and Luis Suarez eventually handed them victory.

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However, following Kyriakos Papadopoulos's opener for the visitors, Barcelona's fans became audibly frustrated, which Neymar said made it harder for the hosts to perform to their best, per Spanish outlet AS (h/t Goal.com's Dejan Kalinic): 

"Yes, it is difficult when the fans are not with us. I'm very happy for the victory, but we suffered a lot to win the match. The important thing was to win, and we did everything to make goals and we won. I did my job. We have to know how to play without Messi, and win so he is back with us in good shape."

Barca had to wait until the 80th minute for their equaliser before Suarez fired a stunning winner to see the La Liga outfit into top spot in Group E as Roma surprisingly lost to BATE Borisov.

It was far from convincing, though, and they struggled somewhat without Messi, per Spanish football writer Andy West:

Neymar was not at his best and was likely frustrated with his performance.

However, the Brazilian had a right to be irked by the whistling home fans, with manager Luis Enrique suggesting it was undeserved, per Moises Llorens of AS: "We needed their support today when things weren’t going our way. You can hear the whistling very clearly from the pitch. The credit this team has, it deserves more. This team deserves a higher faith, it deserves credit, unshakeable support."

The Blaugrana need to be more convincing this weekend when they face Sevilla in La Liga. Their lack of depth in attack and midfield is a real concern, though, per Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe:

They were dealt another blow on Tuesday night as Andres Iniesta was forced off with a hamstring injury on the hour, per Barca.

Undoubtedly Barcelona will need all the support they can get in the coming weeks as they look to keep pace domestically and in Europe with an increasingly threadbare squad.