Lionel Messi scores 400th goal of Barcelona career, but it wasn't easy (Video)

Barcelona needed just 54 seconds to score against Valencia on Saturday as Luis Suarez provided the finish on a 3 v 2 created by Lionel Messi. The fast start came as no surprise considering Barca was riding high from a midweek 3-1 victory at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals. The La Liga leaders figured to keep steamrolling their way to another dominant performance at the Camp Nou.

But surprisingly, nothing came easy for Barcelona after that first-minute goal. Or, to be more specific, nothing came easy for Messi.

Barca ended up collecting all three points with a 2-0 win over a tough Valencia side, but for the most part, the match was a struggle. And Messi found himself in the rare position of, well, not being the magnificent Messi but the mortal Messi.

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First, there was his unbelievable miss in the 40th minute. As is usually the case, the sequence began from the vision of Messi, who dribbled out wide on the right and flipped a pass to Luis Suarez just inside the 18-yard box. Suarez flicked it to Neymar, who lofted a cross back to Xavi whose header placed the ball on a platter for Messi in front of a wide-open net which he somehow missed completely.

His shocking effort left him hiding his face after misfiring wide.

Messi would redeem himself in stoppage time, beating goalkeeper Diego Alves one-on-one to score the clinching goal, and it was a historic one at that – the 400th of his Barcelona career. But even that finish wasn't of the normal standard of Messi magnificence as Alves stopped Messi's initial chip but left the rebound for Messi to tap in.

We're accustomed to seeing the greatness of Messi every time he steps on the pitch. We witness things from him that routinely defy logic. And we've seen his brilliance for so long that, in some ways, it gets taken for granted.

Rarely are we allowed to see that he is indeed human. Saturday offered those moments where, for a few seconds anyway, he showed that he's capable of being fallible in a Barcelona shirt.

Joe Lago is the deputy editor and soccer editor of Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @joelago.