Where would Barcelona be without Lionel Messi?Wednesday night saw the 32-year-old return from a thigh injury to face Inter Milan in the Champions League and, despite not being 100% fit, he dropped a solid 8/10 performance.Messi's superb assist for Luis Suarez in the 84th minute won Barcelona the game to take them joint-top of Group F with Borussia Dortmund.Barca have seriously struggled without their talismanic captain in recent weeks and it's hoped that his injury woes are behind him.Indeed, Messi has never missed so many games at the beginning of a season for the Blaugrana, which could be to do with his age or just sheer back luck.Ernesto Valverde was certainly glad to have Messi back as he said after the game: "It's the first game that he's played [a full 90 minutes]."In any play he can help you, even when he is tired. Messi has not done a pre-season like the others, so he has to catch up."In the end he made a fantastic play, but he was more tired than at the beginning."Messi's importance to Barcelona was there for all to see against Inter, both in the way he played and guided his teammates.His leadership qualities have always been questioned, but there were multiple moments during Wednesday's game where Messi showed exactly why he's captain.When Inter took a surprise lead through Lautaro Martinez in the third minute, Messi urged his teammates to stay calm.And then at half-time, with Barcelona still losing 1-0, Messi was caught on camera giving a motivational team talk in the tunnel."We aren't going to go crazy, lads. We're going out there and press more, just as normal," Messi apparently said, per Sport, with Suarez adding: "Come on, let's go. Let's go."

Back out on the pitch, Messi continued to instruct his teammates, such as summer signing Frenkie de Jong and Nelson Semedo (see below).

Messi doing his utmost to save Barcelona by basically doing Valverde's job for him.

With any luck the Argentina international will now be able to stay injury free, because without him, Barcelona haven't got much hope of achieving anything this season.