LYON - Barcelona sealed their passage through to the Champions League knockout stages despite seeing Juninho earn Lyon a hard-earned draw at the Stade Gerland on Tuesday.
Barca needed just a point to guarantee progression from Group E, but looked as if they would get all three when Lionel Messi slotted home a penalty he had earned himself to make it 2-1 with almost an hour gone.
Juninho, however, had different ideas and he levelled the scores for the second time in the evening when he rammed home a spot-kick at the other end with 11 minutes remaining.
The Brazilian had earlier cancelled out Andres Iniesta's early opener, and overall Lyon were good value for a draw.
It keeps them in the competition, and they need to go to Rangers and win in matchday six in a fortnight's time.
Barca were without Thierry Henry, who has been suffering with a back injury, while coach Frank Rijkaard chose to leave playmaker Ronaldinho on the bench.
They were not missed early on as the Catalans raced into a third-minute lead, courtesy of Iniesta.
Messi led the counter-attack and fed Bojan Krkic down the right. The youngster's cross from the right fell perfectly for Iniesta, who sidefooted his finish into the bottom corner.
Juninho's equaliser was somewhat fortunate, the dead-ball doyen sending into the box a free-kick that evaded everyone and crept into the far corner, beating a stunned Victor Valdes.
The rest of the half was nip and tuck, with both sides showing plenty of initiative.
Yaya Toure, who knows Lyon well from his Ligue 1 days at Monaco, shot over from 30 yards, then had a better effort - this time from 20 yards - tipped round the post by Remy Vercoutre in the 16th minute.
Juninho was the force behind his side's best attacks. And he almost put Les Gones ahead when he pounced on a parry by Valdes and rounded the keeper, only to see his shot cleared off the line by former Lyon favourite Eric Abidal.
Juninho and Barcelona midfielder Xavi both sent free-kicks just over the bar in the final few minutes of the half, and it took 13 minutes of the second period for the visitors to reclaim the lead.
Messi ran onto a through-ball and enticed a sliding tackle from Sebastien Squillaci, who upended the Argentina youngster.
Messi got up, dusted himself down and slotted the resulting penalty into the bottom corner.
With Lyon pushing forward, Barcelona continued to look dangerous on the counter-attack, and Eidur Gudjohnsen forced a good save from Vercoutre following a Messi cut-back.
At the other end, Hatem Ben Arfa slipped as he lined up a shot, the ball rolling into the hands of Valdes from 15 yards out.
Barca were hardly sitting back and Rijkaard threw on Ronaldinho as they looked for a killer third, but with 11 minutes they found themselves all square.
Abidal's lazy challenge brought down substitute Kader Keita and Juninho smashed his penalty down the middle to level the scores.
