While most attention has been given to Barcelona's attacking flair, their defence is now looking a lot firmer and they will be looking for a fifth straight clean sheet when they host Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola's men had a stuttering start to the campaign, with slack defending seeing them draw two out of their first three games, including a 2-2 stalemate at home to AC Milan in their Champions League group H opener.
Injuries to Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique and Eric Abidal have not helped, but while the reigning European champions were dealt another blow on Saturday when Pique limped off in the 3-0 defeat of Racing Santander, they are now looking more solid at the back.
Keeper Victor Valdes has not conceded a goal in four games since Barca drew 2-2 away to Valencia last month.
Injuries generally have been a major problem for the Catalan side with nine reported since August, and Pique will now sit out the next fortnight with a thigh injury.
However, Andres Iniesta was able to return to the starting line-up after a month out against Racing.
Cesc Fabregas is back in training but not expected to be fit for another two weeks after an excellent start to his Barca career was halted by a muscle strain, while Alexis Sanchez and Ibrahim Afellay are also on the sidelines with longer-term injuries.
"It is important to rest in order to fully recover and not make the problems worse," admitted Abidal.
"We need to take care because there are a lot of games in the season and we need to be in top form."
Barcelona are joint top of Group H with four points after responding to their disappointing home draw against Milan, where they conceded an injury-time equaliser, with a 5-0 demolition of BATE Borisov.
They now face Czech champions Viktoria Plzen looking to qualify as quickly as possible from the group.
"We have the same desire as always to win trophies but it is getting harder all the time against teams that know more about us. We still want to finish first though," said Abidal.
"We should enjoy this moment as we are making history. Our next games are against Viktoria and there are six points at stake which if we win will then classify us for the next round."
The main bonus for the Catalans is that World Player of the Year Lionel Messi appears to still be improving -- he has now made his best-ever start to a season with 16 goals in 12 matches, his last two coming against Racing at the weekend.
Instead of being rested, he was named in the starting line-up by coach Pep Guardiola, who did not want him to dwell on Argentina's disappointing World Cup qualifying defeat at the hands of Venezuela.
The debate continues to rage in his home country as to why Messi is so much more prolific at club level, where he enjoys a strike rate that is double that for Argentina, but there can be no doubt as to his class.
It will be an ominous task for Pavel Vrba's Plzen side to stop Messi and his teammates in what will be the first visit for the modest Czech outfit to Spain.
They are unbeaten in five domestic league matches and managed some impressive away results in Champions League qualifying but lost 2-0 in their last match in the San Siro against AC Milan.
Source: AFP
