Barcelona 5-1 Viktoria Plzen: Lewandowski hat-trick on Champions League return

Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Barcelona opened their Champions League campaign with a 5-1 win over Viktoria Plzen. 

Franck Kessie and Ferran Torres were also on target, with the Czech side replying through Jan Sykora. 

It was the perfect start to their European campaign for Barca ahead of next week's trip to Bayern Munich, who beat Inter Milan 2-0 on Wednesday. 

Xavi Hernandez made six changes but Barça were still too good for Plzen -- although there were some scares. 

After Kessie had opened the scoring, turning home Jules Kounde's knockdown, the visitors were awarded a penalty. 

It was overturned, though, when the referee checked the monitor and saw that Jhon Mosquera had actually elbowed Andreas Christensen. 

Lewandowski scored his first of the night in the 34th minute with a clinical finish after good work from Sergi Roberto. 

But Plzen found a way back into the game when some hesitant defending allowed Vaclav Jemelka to pick out Sykora to head home. 

Any fears of a comeback were dispelled by half-time, though, when Lewandowski scored his second, stooping low to head home a fine Ousmane Dembele cross. 

Substitute Torres set Lewandowski up for his third, an expertly taken finish from 20 yards, and then helped himself to the fifth, finishing a brilliant pass from Dembele.