Messi pulls out of Barca squad
Lionel Messi will not feature for Barcelona in their LaLiga clash with Malaga on Saturday due to “personal reasons”.
Argentina international Messi has been replaced in the squad for the clash at La Rosaleda - which pits the league leaders against the bottom side - by centre-back Yerry Mina.
It will be the first LaLiga match the 30-year-old has missed this season and just the fourth in total after he sat out their first three games in the Copa del Rey.
“Change to the squad. Messi is out for personal reasons and Yerry Mina takes his place,” a statement from Barca’s Twitter account read.
No further information on the reason for Messi’s absence has been supplied.
BARCELONA:
‘TOTTENHAM SHOULD PRESSURE REFEREES’
Tottenham can learn from Juventus by being sterner with referees, which manager Mauricio Pochettino thinks will help their chances in the Champions League.
Juve came from a goal down to beat Tottenham 2-1 at Wembley and secure passage to the quarter-finals with a 4-3 aggregate victory on Wednesday, Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scoring in the space of three secondhalf minutes.
Pochettino described how Juve chief executive Giuseppe Marotta berated referee Szymon Marcinak during the interval, stating his own team were too “nice” to make the difference.
“We saw how [Marotta] put pressure on the referee at halftime,” he said.
“They were complaining about the penalty in the first half. Maybe we need to learn how we put pressure on the referee. In this type of game every minimal detail can help you to win.”
On whether Andrea Barzagli should have seen a red card for stepping on Son, Pochettino said: “We complained. We put pressure on the referee but it was easy for the referee to manage us because we were very nice people, trying to help to play a game.
LONDON:
“In this situation, with experience, you have more possibilities to achieve all that you want. That is another game. It’s not only the game playing football. Pochettino said.
GUARDIOLA: I DON’T LIKE MONDAYS
Pep Guardiola said he is not a fan of Monday night football ahead of Manchester City’s trip to Stoke City. Man City can move astep closer to the title when they visit lowly Stoke, who are a point adrift of safety.
“I have bad experiences playing games on Mondays. You have to be focused because Stoke away is always complicated, [they are] fighting to be in the Premier League,” Guardiola said.
“We were lucky last season to win there. When we face teams who are fighting to stay in the Premier League it is complicated.
“I don’t like to play on Monday because the weekend everybody is involved and when the weekend is over, they are like the weekend is over, there are no more games, but we have to play.”
MANCHESTER: