Rakitic comes to Barcelona's rescue in Champions League win over BATE

Barcelona continues to find ways to win.

Even without superstar Lionel Messi and playmaker Andres Iniesta, it finds ways.

Three weeks ago, Bayer Leverkusen took an early lead at the Camp Nou in the Champions League and stoutly held onto it until the very late going. But in the 80th minute, Sergi Roberto scored and then Luis Suarez did the same.

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On Sunday, Barca avenged its 2-1 loss to Sevilla – the first contest since Messi had gone down with knee ligament damage against Las Palmas on Sept. 26 – by beating Rayo Vallecano 5-2 in La Liga, courtesy of four Neymar goals. And while the Blaugranas were outpossessed for the first time in more than two years, the win was emphatic. (Interesting note there: In September 2013, the first team to out-possess Barca in 317 consecutive games was also Rayo.)

And in Belarus on Tuesday, Barca eventually dispatched a stubborn BATE Borisov, which displayed no attacking ambitions whatsoever, on two moments of sheer individual brilliance by Ivan Rakitic for a 2-0 victory.

The Croatian midfielder isn't one of the more heralded players in the squad – not with Messi, Iniesta, Neymar and Suarez around – but he nevertheless has a habit of saving his side's bacon, or jamon iberico, if you will.

Just after halftime of an otherwise uneventful affair, he casually scythed a shot into the far top corner from outside the box on a pass from Neymar.

And in the 64th minute, he took another square pass from Neymar into the space opened up by Suarez's run and deftly chipped it over goalkeeper Sergey Chernik.

So, in spite of injuries to two of its most important players, Barcelona remains in a three-way tie for first place in La Liga on 18 points and has opened up a three-point gap at the top of Group E in the Champions League after Bayer Leverkusen and AS Roma played to an epic 4-4 tie.Perhaps it hasn't been as pretty or convincing as we've come to expect during this long Barca dynasty, but in these troubled times, Luis Enrique's men have managed to keep their season on track while they await the return of Messi and Iniesta.

And that's all Barca's fans can realistically ask for.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.