Lionel Messi will be out for three weeks after suffering a groin strain in Barcelona’s draw with Atletico Madrid.
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Atletico host Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday and will be in positive mood following Angel Correa’s second-half equaliser against Barca.
Real Madrid, the league leaders, had been held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal earlier that day.
Barca head coach, Luis Enrique said in his post-match conference: ‘I’m not a medic, I can’t give information. “We, on the other hand, decided not to take him to Venezuela so that he would have time to recover completely”, he continued. We had few scoring chances because our opponents didn’t allow us to get them.
Argentina, which are placed third in the South American World Cup qualifying group, are scheduled to play Peru in Lima on October 6 before hosting Paraguay on October 11 in Cordoba.
Barca had 29 minutes to find a victor without Messi, and despite chances for Pique and Neymar, Atletico held firm. The duo netted 18 goals between them with Messi sidelined.
“Last year we also had an unfortunate situation but the team kept playing at a high level”, the coach added.
Atletico momentarily switched off as a corner from the left was played short to Andres Iniesta and his cross was powered home by the late arriving Rakitic.
Messi’s injury is a huge blow for the club.
Sergio Busquets was first forced off due to illness before Messi went down to the consternation of the Camp Nou.
He also outlined possible replacements for the Argentina captain’s position on the right.
Barca came closest to finding a victor in the final half hour as a fierce drive from Neymar was repelled by Oblak, whilst Jordi Alba and Rakitic fired off target.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game and we’d be attacking a team that sat back and worked hard”.
“We lost two points against Atletico and we have to make sure we don’t throw away any more”.
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“They are weakened, definitely”, Zidane said.
