Messi all set for 600th Barcelona appearance

MADRID: Lionel Messi will make his 600th official appearance for FC Barcelona when they host Sevilla at the Camp Nou Stadium on Saturday.

Only Xavi Hernandez (767) and Andres Iniesta (642) have played more games for Barca than the 30-year-old who made his debut on October 16, 2004.

And nobody has got close to the 523 goals he has scored for the club, who currently lead the Liga Santander with a four point gap over Valencia, reports Xinhua news agency.

As many as 23 of those goals have come against Sevilla in 21 league games against the side from the south of Spain. With the form Messi is in, it would almost be a surprise if he didn’t add to that total on Saturday night.

It is fair to say that Barca have not been at their best at times this season, as shown by their 0-0 draw away to Olympiakos in the Champions League on Tuesday or the slightly fortunate 2-0 win away to Athletic Club Bilbao last weekend.

Messi and goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen were the architects of last weekend’s win with Messi opening the scoring and Ter Stegen frustrating all of their rival’s efforts.

Meanwhile, Barca are still without the injured Dembele while Luis Suarez is struggling for form in front of goal, limiting Barca coach Ernesto Valverde’s options in attack, given that he appears to have little faith in former Valencia forward Paco Alcacer.

Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic will play in midfield. Valverde has injury issues and Rafinha is still sidelined along with Andre Gomes, Arda Turan and Sergi Roberto and Inesta doubtful until the last minute.

Sergi Roberto’s injury means Nelson Semedo will play at right back while Denis Suarez could also appear against his former club. PARIS: John Isner rallied from a third-set deficit to edge Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (12-10), 5-7, 7-6 (7-3) in the Paris Masters round-of-16 match here.

Despite firing 25 aces, the ninth-seeded Isner on Thursday struggled more than usual on serve. He faced a total of 12 break points although he managed to save all but two of them to stick around in the contest, reports Efe.

The American prevailed in an extremely tight first set, while the sixth-seeded Dimitrov got a late service break in the second set that enabled him to draw even.

The Bulgarian seemed to have the contest in hand when he took a 5-2 lead with one service break and then held a match point on Isner’s serve in the eighth game.

But the American got out of that jam to hold serve, broke Dimitrov for the first time in the match in the ensuing game and then held again to level the third set at 5-5.

The match came down to a third-set tie-breaker, which Isner won comfortably to advance to Friday’s quarter-finals.