FC Barcelona‘s Lionel Messi pauses during the Spanish La Liga soccer match against Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.
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“Missing Lionel Messi is a big loss for football, for everyone, not just us and we are sorry about that”, said the 46-year-old after the game.
Barcelona confirmed the injury on his right leg.
After doing his utmost to run it off, it soon became clear that the issue concerning Messi was more than just a knock, with the Barcelona man limping off to rapturous ovations from the Blaugrana faithful just before the hour-mark.
Yesterday after Messi gave up on his long time recurring groin injury, Barcelona were left stunned at the Camp Nou.
The Bundesliga club are set to face off against Barcelona on Wednesday night and, far from counting their lucky stars that they’ll now do so with Messi ruled out, they actually sound pretty disappointed that the Argentinian won’t be lining up alongside his teammates.
But on Wednesday, Atletico marshalled Suarez and Neymar well in Messi’s absence to hold out for a point and other teams could follow that strategy. Football loses. We have to find solutions, knowing that with Messi we’re very strong.
Barca head coach, Luis Enrique said in his post-match conference: ‘I’m not a medic, I can’t give information.
Real had dropped points for the first time this season earlier in the evening at home to Villarreal and must have feared reigning champions Barcelona would cut their lead to one point when Ivan Rakitic headed home an inviting Andres Iniesta cross in the 41st minute.
And, whilst most would expect Luis Enrique’s side to still have enough to beat their German opponents in mid-week, it is undoubtedly a setback for the La Liga giants.
“Last year we also had an unfortunate situation, but the team kept playing at a high level”, the coach added.
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“When there are 11 guys in the area, co-ordinated like that, it takes a lot out of us to break them down”, he said in quotes reported by Marca.
