Lionel Messi set up both goals as Barcelona scored a 2-0 victory over Portuguese side Benfica in the Champions League.

Messi played in a low cross to Alexis Sanchez for the first goal in the first half, before the Argentine's through ball was finished expertly by Cesc Fabregas in the second period as Barca maintained their perfect record.

"We played a great game tonight in a stadium where it's very difficult to play," Messi said. "Benfica are a very good team and made our job a hard one. We still managed to impose our game, and created a lot of goalscoring opportunities.

"Benfica had some chances, but we were worthy winners. Now we're going to continue working to qualify and to reach the next stage. I was happy to be the source of both the goals but what interests me most is the victory and getting three more precious points."

Barcelona head coach Tito Vilanova was relieved to pick up all three points, and is now looking forward to the 'El Clasico' clash against Real Madrid at the weekend. "The win took us a lot of effort but despite that we took three very important points here in Lisbon," he said.

"We are very happy with the result, we haven't managed to win at the home of Benfica recently despite having played here with some great teams.

"In the first half they waited to counterattack and with their back line playing high up the pitch it allowed us to look for opportunities to get in behind them. Of course scoring an early goal always helps but this wasn't an easy game for us at all.

"Alexis Sánchez is continuing to show he is a player who wants to grow. As we saw with Cesc Fàbregas earlier in the season, now is the time for Alexis to push on.

"Looking ahead to Real Madrid, it will be a tough game. What we must do now is to recover from these last two matches and start to think about the encounter against Real Madrid at the weekend."