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Goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 2-0 away win against Getafe in La Liga as the European champions continued their perfect start to the season.

The European champions began the match in decidedly lacklustre fashion, sitting back and allowing their hosts to make the majority of the running.

And Getafe were extremely unlucky not to earn a lead after just 12 minutes as Roberto Soldado - scorer of a hat-trick last week - clattered a stunning drive against the top-left corner of the goal while Victor Valdes was left stranded.

Inspired by the near miss, the home side began to dominate, with Daniel Parejo and Soldado both going close to bagging an opener.

Barcelona were kicking themselves at not going in to half-time with the lead, however, as Ibrahimovic spurned a simple chance with a minute to go before the break as he shot weakly while through on Oscar Utari.

When Getafe started the second half in the same boisterous fashion, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola decided to call on the big names that he had left on the bench, with Messi and Andres Iniesta being introduced just before the hour mark.

And the substitutes had an almost instant impact, finding the space that Barca needed to start cutting open a solid Getafe defence.

Messi was the catalyst for the opening goal, his perfectly-timed pass releasing Eric Abidal on the left to put the ball straight back across the six-yard box, where Ibrahimovic was waiting to glance the ball past the keeper on 66 minutes.

Getafe came close to an equaliser seven minutes later as Soldado drew a good save from Valdes with a long-range effort, but when Messi headed home from Ibrahimovic's cross with 10 minutes left the match was over as a contest.

Toby Keel / Eurosport