Messi close, but Barça won’t take risks

BARCELONA forward Lionel Messi is looking sharp in training but remains a doubt for Saturday’s “El Clasico” against Real Madrid, teammate Luis Suarez said.

Messi is in a fitness battle having returned to training on Monday following a knee injury he picked up at the end of September.

“Whether he plays or not is down to the coach, the medics and how he feels but he has been looking sharp in training. However, it is the type of injury where there are risks for the future,” Suarez told a news conference yesterday.

“Messi is a player that makes a difference in all games and in Clasicos he has always made a big impact but we will have to see if he is ready.”

In the absence of the four-time World Player of the Year, Suarez and Neymar have excelled and propelled Barça to a threepoint lead over Real at the top of La Liga.

Still Suarez is in no doubt over the value of Messi, pictured, for the clash.

“Leo is above any other player due to what he has achieved and what he is still doing,” said Suarez. “Neymar is amazing, behind Messi and could easily be the second best in the world. At the moment he is playing incredibly and it is great to see.

“We knew that we were going to be without Leo and that we had to be strong both physically and mentally. We have lost some points, as have Madrid, but we are happy because we have picked up good results without the best player in the world.”

While Barça are looking for a seventh straight win between La Liga and the Champions League, Real need to battle back after defeat away to Sevilla before the international break when they were weak defensively.

“You never know what can happen in these types of games and when you start as favourite it can often go wrong,” said Suarez.

“We will have to be fully concentrated. Just because Madrid lost their last game is not so important as they have great players.

“The league will not be decided by this game if we open up a six- or four-point lead as there is still a long way to go. It is not easy to win a league and there are also other teams like Atletico (Madrid).” – Reuters ARGENTINA took four matches to bed down tactics to help them win without Lionel Messi, closing the year with a 1-0 victory in Colombia that augurs well when the World Cup qualifiers resume in March with a fit captain.

No longer wracked by uncertainty in the absence of their talisman after last month’s poor results in the opening matches of the South American group, Argentina were the better team in a 1-1 draw with Brazil last week followed by Tuesday’s first win.

Coach Gerardo Martino had appealed for the players’ commitment to his attacking philosophy and tactics despite the squad’s disappointment in July when they failed to beat Chile in the Copa America final. Martino will go into the next round of qualifiers in March sure that his players can deliver as a team with or without Messi, who had never previously missed four consecutive competitive internationals.

“The most important thing is that today (Tuesday) the team showed again the character needed to play in the Argentine national team,” said Javier Mascherano, who dictated the pace from central midfield as stand-in captain against Colombia. “We had (that character) to play in a difficult venue and above all in a complicated situation (in the standings).

“We leave satisfied because we had a good double-header, we got four points against two leading rivals, not at all bad,” he said after helping to keep Colombia danger man James Rodriguez in check.

Argentina, sixth in the 10-team group, still face a tough task to reel in the teams above them who occupy the four qualifying berths for the 2018 finals in Russia and the fifth-place play-off slot.

Ecuador, who started with a shock 2-0 win in Buenos Aires last month, are the surprise leaders with a perfect 12 points after a 3-1 victory in Venezuela on Tuesday. Uruguay are second with nine points after a 3-0 rout of Copa America holders Chile in Montevideo.

Brazil are third after beating Peru 3-0 and Paraguay fourth following a 2-1 home win over Bolivia with Chile slipping to fifth, with all three on seven points.

Martino was thrilled with the win, Argentina’s third in a row in the hot Caribbean city of Barranquilla where Colombia have played most of their home qualifiers since the late 1980s.

“I feel happy and calm because we continued what we did against Brazil, we had a day’s less rest and played in a stifling climate,” Martino said. “If we’d lost, (critics) would have said the players ran less and didn’t back the coach, but they showed the opposite.”

Martino has had a good response from young newcomers to the team such as defender Ramiro Funes Mori and striker Paulo Dybala as he builds on the core group that were World Cup and Copa America runners-up. – Reuters