Barcelona sweat over Messis injury
News & Trends •
afp25 barcelona now face an anxious wait over the arm injury suffered by their talismanic player lionel messi especially as the clasico against real madrid comes up next weekend1 in the 26th minute at the camp nou he awkwardly fell on his right arm his right arm but not before the argentinian had doubled barcas lead with a curling left-footed finish1 philippe coutinho had opened the scoring and luis suarezs penalty which he also earned made sure of victory before a three-goal flurry in the final 11 minutes1 pablo sarabia and luis muriel twice reduced the deficit to two either side of a sweeping volley from ivan rakitic1 any joy at jumping above in-form sevilla however was tarnished by the injury to messi1 before the clash against madrid next sunday inter milan visit in the champions league on wednesday but messis involvement there would seem unlikely1 he fell to the ground following a tussle with sevillas franco vazquez and as his right hand tried to cushion the landing his elbow appeared to buckle1 messi was helped off the pitch by medical staff and despite having his right arm heavily strapped while barca played for nine minutes with 10 men he finally trudged off down the tunnel1 if the injury proves serious the timing could hardly be worse given ernesto valverdes team face a difficult run of fixtures over the next month1 up till the 26th minute when he was substituted messi was pivotal in the game against sevilla at camp nou. he scored and then went off injured as barcelona beat sevilla 4-2 on saturday to move back to the top of la liga1 even without messi they might be confident of seeing off madrid whose early-season dip has only deepened while barcelona have sparked a rival1 since drawing at home to athletic bilbao last month to make it three games without a win they have blown tottenham away at wembley taken a point away to valencia and now eased past sevilla who came into the weekend top of the table1 barca fans had chanted dont touch the badge before kick-off after president josep maria bartomeu had announced earlier on saturday that plans to change the club crest had been shelved1 they were soon celebrating a goal too as coutinho bent a sumptuous right-footed shot into the far corner with only two minutes on the clock1 messi doubled the advantage racing clear on the counter-attack before jinking inside and curling into the bottom corner with his left foot. it was his last significant contribution1 ousmane dembele was his replacement but suarez took on the mantle too quick to his own heavy touch and brought down by sevilla goalkeeper tomas vaclik. suarez buried the penalty1 the game seemed up but marc-andre ter stegen had to make a brilliant double save to deny sarabia and then wissam ben yedder with his thigh1 sarabia gave sevilla hope with 11 minutes left his shot deflecting off clement lenglet and in but rakitic ensured there was to be no late drama with a well-timed volley. muriel added what proved only to be a consolation in injury time1 after inter and real whose poor form continued with a loss at home to levante earlier on saturday barcas schedule includes the return tie against inter in italy as well as la liga games against real betis and atletico madrid1