Barcelona Counting On Messi Against Viktoria Plzen

Barcelona, Spain, Oct 18: Barcelona is counting on Lionel Messi to maintain his excellent scoring form when it hosts Czech champion Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League.

Messi's pair of goals in a 3-0 victory over Racing Santander on Saturday took the Argentina striker's season tally to 16 and kept the Spanish champions top of the league.

The defending European champions face the first of back-to-back games against Plzen starting at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.

Barcelona and AC Milan share four points in Group H, with the Italian champions beginning a double-header against Belarusian side BATE Borisov.

Barcelona defender Eric Abidal says “these are two important games. We know that if we can reach 10 points we are practically in the next round.”