Barca off to a flier

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi (C) is in full flow and too hot to handle for Lyon midfielders Bodmer (L) and Jeremy Toulalan during their Champions League tie at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.Photo: AFP

Barcelona striker Thierry Henry would be forgiven for having a sly look at results elsewhere in Europe despite the Catalans' convincing 3-0 Champions League group E win over Lyon Wednesday.
After one of the biggest transfer deals of the summer, and a subsequent long wait to find his scoring boots, Henry finally ended his Spanish goal drought with an injury-time goal that moved Barcelona top of their group.
Henry has now scored 43 goals in the Champions League and sits fourth in the competition's all-time list behind Raul (57), Ruud van Nistelrooy (50), and Andrei Shevchenko (47).
But loyal fans would be quick to point out that most of Henry's goals were scored with Arsenal, who at Emirates stadium continued to impress in his absence with a 3-0 win over Sevilla in group H.
Buoyed by manager Arsene Wenger's further two-year commitment to the club in spite of Henry's departure in the summer, the Gunners were fully deserving of the win over the two-time defending UEFA Cup champions.
Premiership rivals Manchester United were not to be outdone, securing a precious 1-0 away win at Sporting Lisbon, the first for an English club at Sporting, courtesy of their former starlet Cristiano Ronaldo.
And another British team, Rangers, were celebrating with a deserved 2-1 win over German champions VfB Stuttgart.
The blue half of Glasgow will undoubtedly awake with a smile on its face following arch rivals Celtic's 2-0 humbling at Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday.
One of the biggest shocks of the night came in Istanbul, were Fenerbahce found delight in a 1-0 victory over Italian champions Inter Milan.
Inter coach Roberto Mancini said: "They were better throughout the 90 minutes and deserved to win. We didn't really play well and should have done better."
PSV Eindhoven's 2-0 win at home moved them top of group G ahead of the Turks, who had striker Deivid to thank for their 43rd minute winner for which Inter had no response.
Elsewhere Serie A leaders Roma continued their impressive form, moving top of group F ahead of United thanks to a 2-0 win over Dynamo Kiev.
Slavia Prague made a positive start to their first appearance in the group stages, the Czechs' 2-1 win over Steaua Bucharest moving them to second in group H behind Arsenal.
Barcelona meanwhile were given a boost by their French rivals, who have slowly begun to find their rhythm on the domestic front but just couldn't muster an attacking formation against the Spanish league giants.
The hosts' first goal came thanks to a deflection from a Lionel Messi cross which was turned in by French defender Francois Clerc.
Lyon re-emerged from the dressing rooms more alert, but they were outdone by a tactical switch on the part of Rijkaard who replaced Ronaldinho with Andres Iniesta.
The diminutive midfielder first had a shot blocked, and as the hosts continued to frustrate Lyon with their short, sharp passing game Iniesta set up their second goal.
With eight minutes on the clock Deco who flicked the ball to Iniesta, whose square pass to the unmarked Messi allowed the Argentine ace to slot home from close range with ease.
Henry then opened his scoring account; the French international stroking the ball into an empty net after Remy Vercoutre had saved Giovani Dos Santos' initial effort.
Rijkaard hopes this goal will ease the pressure on Henry, whose goal-scoring touch at Arsenal was legendary.
"I'm happy with the third goal we scored because Thierry worked hard throughout the whole match, and I think this will spur him on for the matches to come," said the Dutch coach.
Lyon manager Alain Perrin meanwhile felt his rather disorganised side did not deserve to concede as many goals.
"The score doesn't reflect our performance in this match. We defended well for an hour at the Camp Nou but we conceded the second goal at a time when we should have been scoring ourselves."