Barcelona will hope to make home advantage count after Lionel Messi and his teammates drew a blank in Lyon on Tuesday, the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie ending in a goalless stalemate.

The Spanish side had most of the chances at the Groupama Stadium, with Luis Suarez firing just wide in the second half, but it was Lyon who came the closest when Martin Terrier hit the bar early on.

Ernesto Valverde's side once again left frustrated on the road at the business end of the competition, and have now gone six away matches without winning in the Champions League knockout rounds, scoring just a single goal in that time. It is a run that goes back three years.

Desperate to end Real Madrid's recent European dominance, Barca must now finish the job when the teams meet again at the Camp Nou on March 13, but Lyon remain very much in the tie.

Barcelona's form needs to improve between now and then, though – the Catalans have drawn four of their last five matches in all, and have scored just once, from a penalty, in their last three outings.

With Arthur missing due to injury, Valverde opted to play Sergi Roberto in midfield, leaving the out-of-form Philippe Coutinho on the bench alongside Arturo Vidal.

That may have been an acknowledgment that the visitors were wary of Lyon's flying left-back Ferland Mendy, who has been linked with Barca in some quarters.

The visitors were certainly right to be wary of a Lyon side whose best performances this season have come against the big boys – four points from a possible six against Manchester City in the group stage and a recent win at home to Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1.

The Catalans looked more assured on the ball, at least until they reached the Lyon penalty area.

Ousmane Dembele – one of two Frenchmen in the away line-up – came closest for them in the first half, but their best chances came after he had been replaced by Coutinho midway through the second period.

Suarez came within inches of breaking the deadlock 20 minutes from the end, firing narrowly wide with a first-time shot from Jordi Alba's cutback.

Coutinho then had a powerful shot beaten away by Anthony Lopes, with the Lyon goalkeeper also frustrating Messi and Sergio Busquets as Barcelona dominated but departed without a potentially precious away goal.

At least they extended their unbeaten record against Lyon to seven matches, but there is still hope for the French club ahead of the return.

If there is such a thing as a platonic ideal of a nil-nil game then Bayern Munich played it against Liverpool at Anfield on Tuesday night. On paper, a 2019 clash between Die Roten and the Redmen is a tantalizing prospect that harks back to the glory days of the 1970s and 80s when both sides were major forces in European football. In reality, it showed that while both sides may be giants of the game, they live in fear of a Jack, lurking around the corner, waiting to behead them and send them back to their domestic leagues.

Liverpool, ascendant but lacking both Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren, were expected to easily handle Bayern Munich, descendant due to an aging squad and a manager in Niko Kovac who seems to be out of his depth. Instead, Kovac really did hark back to the football of yore and set up his men to play in a deeply unflashy style. His four at the back kept Liverpool's attacking maestros pinned down and, in the first half, only Sadio Mane had a real chance.

The second half was mostly the same. Even with The Kop eerily quiet – just like the weather, they had been frozen by the action on the pitch – Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp had the Anfield legacy behind him and with 20 straight undefeated performances in Europe, felt that he could keep pressing against the Bayern defense, but they held strong and by the hour mark, it became clear that unless Robert Lewandowski could get a clear shot, or, more likely, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman could finish after storming down the wings, they were willing to hold it goalless and go into the second leg at the Allianz Arena in three weeks' time all square.

It should be stressed that this wasn't a negative game in any way, simply one that laid each side's pathologies totally bare. Since the advent of the Premier League, Liverpool have treated the Champions League as their main focus; as that famous night in Istanbul proved, they were always able to compete in a knockout tournament even when the grind of the league proved to be too much.

Under Klopp, that has, if not totally reversed, proven to no longer be the case and Liverpool felt like their bigger concern was the clash against Manchester United this weekend. Victory there will return them to the top spot of the Premier League and keep them in prime position to win it for the first time.

Bayern Munich, on the other hand, are full of insecurity. By the time the Champions League quarterfinals take place, they are usually so far ahead of the rest of the Bundesliga that success is a given and they can give their complete attention to Europe; this year, they have just about scrabbled up to second place behind a dominant, resurgent Borussia Dortmund and having been humbled by Die Schwarzgelben, their aura of invincibility has gone and others are giving them licks too.

If Kovac had one aim in mind, it wasn't to win at Anfield, it was simply to make sure the cracks at home don't become a continent-wide fissure, especially while the race to replace the old guard of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery is on.