FC Barcelona All Thing

Lionel Messi has a suspected tear in his left thigh after he was substituted off at Sam Mamés on Saturday night.

“We took him off because he was in pain. We’ll do more tests tomorrow but the outlook is not good,” manager Guardiola told a news conference following Barça’s disappointing 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao which saw the champions drop down to second behind new league leaders Real Madrid.

The number of players unavailable to Guardiola ahead of the season defining week next week is increasing at an alarming rate with Zlatan Ibrahimovic out with a thigh strain, Yaya Touré out with swine flu, Éric Abidal out with both swine flu and a knocked picked up on international duty and Rafael Márquez who also has a suspected case of swine flu.

Barça take in Inter Milan on Tuesday night in a must win match. Should Barça lose all three points and Rubin Kazan beat Dynamo Kyiv at home then the European champions will be knocked out of the competition.

Following that, Barça then take on new pacesetters Real Madrid on Sunday night with all 3 points a must to regain top spot in the league.

Barça’s Champions League campaign is back on track with a convincing 2-0 over José Mourinho’s Inter Milan at the Camp Nou.

The victory now means that Barça, who didn’t play both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Leo Messi, are back on top of group F, leapfrogging Inter and Rubin Kazan in the process.

Things got off brilliantly for the European champions, Gerard Piqué opening the scoring inside 10 minutes after the Inter Milan defence failed to defend a Barça corner,

And the lead was doubled 16 minutes later after Dani Alves’ cross found an unmarked Pedro in the box, whose half volley slipped past Julio Cesar.

Barça continued to press Inter, who quite frankly looked dreadful, but in the end, Barça couldn’t add another goal.

They now travel to Kiev on 9th December looking for just 1 point to book their place in the next round.