Luis Enrique back to Rome as barca kick off Champions League defense

FC Barcelona kick off the defense of their Champions League title with a difficult trip to play Roma on Wednesday night.

It will be a trip back down memory lane for Barcelona coach Luis Enrique, who had a difficult season coaching the Italian club after he left his job with the Barcelona B-team, although he admits the experience did help him learn his profession.

Barca have started the season with three wins in three games and despite some indifferent form, they showed on Saturday they are able to dig deep and battle for a win when they triumphed 2-1 away to Atletico Madrid.

Luis Enrique will be able to make one important change for that game with Gerard Pique once again available in central defense. The Spain international was suspended for the first four BBVA Primera Liga games of the campaign, but that ban does not affect Europe.

He will go straight into the side for Thomas Vermaelen, who suffered another muscle injury in Saturday night and will be out for around a month.

Leo Messi was able to celebrate the birth of his second son on Friday and he started Saturday's game on the bench, getting into the game to score the winning goal against Atletico.

Luis Enrique said he had agreed that was for the best as Messi was tired after the birth of his son and he will be hoping the Argentinean has been able to catch up on his sleep in the last 72 hours, because Messi will start in Rome alongside Luis Suarez and Neymar.

It's hard to see the coach making many more changes for a game which will set the tone for their European campaign and he will no doubt warn his players that although they beat Roma 3-0 in their pre-season Joan Gamper trophy, this time it is for real and if they bring htree points back from Italy it will be the perfect start to their Champions League defense. Endi