Live Commentary

Villa hits the spot David Villa netted a second-half penalty to earn Barcelona a point in 1-1 draw from their trip to Rubin Kazan, who once again proved a frustrating opponent for the Catalan giants. Villa slotted home on the hour-mark to cancel out Cristian Noboa's 30th-minute penalty for Rubin, with both goalkeepers coming agonisingly close to saving the respective spot-kicks. Barca dominated for large periods but not even the second-half arrival of fit-again Lionel Messi could inspire Pep Guardiola's side to victory, and the visitors almost ended up empty-handed as Rubin substitute Obafemi Martins hit the woodwork late on. The result leaves Barca on four points from two games on Group D following their 5-1 mauling of Panathinaikos in round one, while Russian outfit Rubin picked up their first point having previously lost to FC Copenhagen. Rubin proved a problematic opponent for Barca in last season's Champions League, winning 2-1 at the Nou Camp and then holding the 2009 European champions goalless at home, and Kurban Berdyev's side had Guardiola's men on the back foot again after taking a first-half lead. Barca had bossed the opening stages and hit the crossbar through Pedro Rodriguez before Villa fired just wide, but against the run of play Rubin took the lead. Victor Valdes' mis-hit clearance gave Vitali Kaleshin the chance to burst into the Barca where he was sent tumbling by Dani Alves as he tried to burst away from the Brazilian and Gerard Pique. Valdes almost atoned for his part in the incident as he guessed right for Noboa's penalty, but although he managed to get some of his body behind the shot, he could not prevent the Rubin captain from putting his side ahead. That was a blow to Barca but they had a chance to get back on level terms just before the break when Pedro side-footed another good chance narrowly wide. Barca had to wait until the 60th minute to even things up, with Andres Iniesta winning a penalty in almost exactly the same place and fashion as Kaleshin had in the first half, Spain's World Cup final hero being brought down by Lasha Salukvadze as he attempted to escape from two defenders. Villa, like Noboa before him, managed to find the back of the net but not before suffering a scare as the diving Sergei Ryzhikov got a hand to his shot but not enough to keep it out. The final half-hour was virtually all Barca, with Dani Alves almost capitalising on a terrible back-header only to be denied by Ryzhikov. The arrival of Messi, who had missed Barca's past two matches with an ankle injury, gave the visitors another attacking threat and the Argentinian drew a good block from Ryzhikov in the 67th minute. Messi then headed another opportunity over before Barca enjoyed a big let-off in the 86th minute when Rubin came so close to netting on a rare attack. Martins peeled away from Carles Puyol to get on the end of a deep cross but his powerful downward header from four yards out hit the near post and rebounded to safety. Even after that though Barca had two great chances of their own to take the spoils, Bojan Krkic heading wide when unmarked before Iniesta curled an injury-time effort over with just Ryzhikov to beat - a miss that left more than one Barca player holding his head as the Spanish champions had to settle for a share of the points.