Lionel Messi will miss Barcelona‘s Club World Cup semifinal with Guangzhou Evergrande due to renal colic, the club has announced.
Advertisement
Barcelona’s Luis Suarez netted a hat-trick against Guangzhou to send Barca to the Club World Cup final.
The winners meet South American champions River Plate in Sunday’s final.
Messi has already endured a spell on the sidelines in the 2015-16 term, tearing the internal collateral ligament of his left knee back in September.
Overall, FC Barcelona, the defending European Champions had no players in the XI, while Bayern Munich and PSG had the most players with two each.
Zheng excelled in his role as skipper when Guangzhou won their maiden AFC Champions League title two years ago, producing performances which earned him the AFC Player of the Year Award. “We just want to enjoy and learn from it. We don’t fear and we have no reason to be nervous”.
Luis Enrique: “The game [against Deportivo La Coruna] was under control until we conceded the first goal. The player has renal colic”, the club confirmed on Twitter.
“Before it was about getting there using more elaborate build-up play”.
The addition of Luis Suarez, with his ability to play off the shoulder of the last defender, has undoubtedly given Barca more thrust. “Arsenal seems to have improved, especially from midfield and from the attacking side”. “To get on so well and manage the egos like they do is not easy”.
“The team’s situation couldn’t be better”, he said in remarks reported by Marca.
Messi helped Barcelona defeat Santos 4-0 in the 2011 final, but he said that Neymar, then 19, showed during the tournament that he had rare talent.
Winning this tournament, hosted this year in Yokohama, would be the club’s fifth trophy of a remarkable treble winning campaign, where they romped to the league, Copa del Rey and Champions League.
Advertisement
After such a successful season, Scolari says his team are motivated, and are lucky to have the opportunity to play a team like the current La Liga pace-setters. Guangzhou were powerless to do anything five minutes into the second half as Barcelona effectively secured their place in Sunday’s final.
