Barcelona field the greatest subs bench of all time including Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez

BARCELONA possibly fielded the greatest subs bench of all time, but lost at home to little Alaves.

However the gamble backfired on Luis Enrique who made wholesale changes to the side that beat Atletico Bilbao before the international break.

Lionel Messi limped off of for Argentina with an injury against Venezuela, while Luis Saurez featured in both games for Uruguay and both would have returned to Spain from South America without much recovery time.

With that in mind and the opening Champions League Group C tie at home to Celtic on Tuesday, Barca boss Luis Enrique rung the changes against newly promoted Alaves leaving Messi, Suarez, Andres Iniesta, Jordi Alba and defender Samuel Umtiti who joined from Lyon for £20m.

Neymar who featured for Brazil in the Olympics this summer was the only big name striker out of the Barca Holy Trinity to start.

The La Liga champions are now three points behind bitter rivals Real Madrid who thrashed Osasuna 5-2 with Cristiano Ronaldo marking his return from injury with the opening goal.