On Saturday night, Camp Nou saw hosts Barcelona beat Sevilla 4-2, ending a streak of four La Liga games without a win. The confidence-lifting victory, which helped the defending Spanish champions regain their lead in the top flight, was marred by an injury to their captain Lionel Messi.
The 31-year-old Argentine icon set up the opener for Coutinho and posted a goal himself; he was subbed off in the 26th minute after a collision with Franco Vazquez sent him falling awkwardly in midfield and landing on his right arm. According to his club's website, Barcelona's No. 10 is said to have broken the radial bone in his right arm and has been ruled out for three weeks.
This means that Messi will miss the Champions League action against Inter Milan and La Liga fixture with bitter rivals Real Madrid as well as four other games in the league, the Champions League, and the Copa del Rey.
Although Blaugrana manager Ernesto Valverde played down concerns that his club would struggle without its all-time top-scorer, fans have been speculating that three Messi-less weeks would put his coaching ability to a serious test.
3weeks #Messi out = 3week test of Valverde's actual capabilities
— BIG SOιO (@BIGS0L0) 20 октября 2018 г.
Its even good he has been injured now let's see if @FCBarcelona really has a future when messi is out
— Quofi Oduro (@oduro_wages) 21 октября 2018 г.
Hard time starts for EV
— //used to miss; (@InsideDetective) 21 октября 2018 г.
Messi's injury has given Malcom a golden chance to prove his mettle. Now that Messi is injured, Valverde should look at Malcom as a replacement and start him in the coming matches against Inter and Madrid
— Soham Kambli (@sohamk0809) 21 октября 2018 г.
It seems that some aficionados are desperately looking for a way to bring Messi back to the pitch as soon as possible.
— 🇦🇲AAA🇸🇾 (@ANTOveslantoun) 21 октября 2018 г.
However, many web users are still confident about Barcelona's chances in El Clasico even despite Messi's injury.
I mean the way Madrid are playing they won’t need him to win
— |R|S (@zerofoxgiven75) 20 октября 2018 г.
No worries. Madrid will still loose
— Ajah Chigozie (@leitochukwu) 21 октября 2018 г.
Barca don’t need Messi to destroy this Madrid team.
— efoFiley ▫️ (@efo_filey) 20 октября 2018 г.
Others believe that the first El Clasico in years without either Lionel Messi or former Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Juventus this summer, will hardly garner a lot of viewers' attention.
This will be the least viewed Clasico in years.
— Callum (@Callum_7) 20 октября 2018 г.
No Messi and no Cristiano in an El Classico pic.twitter.com/DImYoDtruP
— ¹⁰⚡ (@Rashford101) 20 октября 2018 г.
No Ronaldo or Messi? Wow what’s the point of the Classico then?
— Gabriel Hernandez (@Gabybaby0711) 20 октября 2018 г.
Literally is no point then just call it off now
— Adam (@Addza98) 20 октября 2018 г.
