Barcelona hosting Inter Milan at the Camp Nou was supposed to be one of the most anticipated clashes of the Champions League group stage. But that was before Lionel Messi suffered an arm injury on Saturday and was ruled out with a fractured arm.
So Messi watched the game from the stands on Wednesday, with cameras watching his every reaction to the action on the pitch.
On Sunday, Real Madrid and Barcelona square off in the 177th league edition of El Clasico, the greatest rivalry match in all of sports. Real leads the all-time series with 72 La Liga victories as compared to Barca’s 70 (the two sides have shared the spoils an additional 34 times), and the club from the Spanish capital desperately needs another victory to reduce the currently escalating gap in league play.
Barcelona vs. Real Madrid | Camp Nou
Sunday, October 28, 2018 | 11:15 a.m. ET
TV: beIN SPORTS USA or beIN SPORTS en Español
Stream: Fubo TV, Sling TV or beIN SPORTS CONNECT U.S.A
FC Barcelona has updated the world on the severity of the arm injury which forced Lionel Messi off in the 26th minute of the club’s 4-2 victory over Sevilla on Saturday, and it’s terrible news for fans of the beautiful game: Messi has fractured the radial bone in his right arm and will be out for three weeks.
Accordingly, Barca’s captain will miss Wednesday’s Champions League match against Inter Milan and, most notably, next Sunday’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi did what Lionel Messi does 12 minutes into Barcelona’s match against Sevilla on Saturday. Then he did something uncharacteristic for the prolific Argentine: he got hurt.
In a scary moment for Barça fans, Messi was taken off with an apparent arm injury after an awkward fall in the 16th minute, moments after he scored his 12th goal of the season. He was eventually taken off in the 26th minute, unable to continue, a rare injury for a player who has averaged more than 52 appearances per season the last 10 years.
Unless Lionel Messi returns to the national team and wins the 2022 World Cup, the Maradona vs Messi debate is unlikely to ever be resolved.
But Diego Maradona has his own opinions, and they aren’t very nice to the man who might be the greatest player of his generation.