LISBON: Benfica manager Jorge Jesus hailed Barcelona, despite feeling aggrieved that  his side went in behind at the interval after matching the Catalans for the first half of their Champions League Group G  match at Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica this morning.

Goals from Alexis Sanchez and Cesc Fabregas were enough to secure the win for Barca, with little in the way of reply from the Portuguese side, whilst registering over 70 per cent of possession in the process.

"We were up against the best team in the world, a side who always have 70 per cent or more of possession and that dominate all their opponents," admitted Jesus.

"They have only got the two best players in Europe! We played well in the first half and didn't deserve to be losing at half time. Barca were very effective and that was the difference until they made it 2-0. After that, it was even more difficult."

Despite his admiration, Jesus did feel Benfica  could have done more to disrupt Barca's trademark passing game.

"We had to be more aggressive towards the man that was carrying the ball. That was the message I gave the players, but Barca don't lose possession.

"And then they have an extra-terrestrial (Lionel Messi) that does the rest. The other teams will play against Barca and also lose, so they will have the same margin of error as us," he said.

Messi may not have scored but the Argentina captain was in superb form as he troubled the Benfica defence. He was also the one whom engineered both the goals to frustration of the Benfica supporters to end up as the best player on the pitch.

And Messi insisted winning is more important than scoring goals.

"Not scoring? I'm not worried about scoring, that's not the goal of a game," he said.  "The goal is to win the game."

"It's always nice to see (childhood idol) Pablo Aimar. Now we'll start to prepare for the Clasico on Sunday. There will be no revenge for the Spanish Super Cup, we are just motivated to continue winning in the Primera Liga.

Aimar, who used to play for Valencia and Real Zaragoza before, came in as a substitute this morning.

- mD