Lionel Messi back to full fitness and Laurent Blanc shows concerns for Karim Benzema
Lionel Messi, the little dynamite from Argentina has said that he has fully recovered from the ankle injury and feels 100% fit. Messi suffered the injury 2 weeks back and has been out of action since.
Messi made a comeback to the team from the bench in the UEFA Champions’ league match against Rubin Kazan that ended in a 1-1 draw for the Spanish Champions. Messi was only on the pitch for 20 minutes or so, but the manager and
rest of the team were holding their breath to see if his ankle would hold off till the end. At the final whistle Pep Guardiola admitted that he was a bit worried about the fitness of Messi and was not sure if he was actually fully fit to be fielded in an away
game. The manager however showed his delight on the display of his left footed player and said that return of Leo is good news for the whole team.
Barcelona did not get the desired result in the match, but a point away from home in Europe was not such a bad result in the end. Messi after the match said that he was happy with his fitness and felt good on the pitch and being
back in action after few days.
Messi said: "I'm extremely content with my ankle. I am happy with it. It has not bothered me and I have not noticed any pain.
The home side who were dubbed as the minnows compared to Barcelona, but did well to restrict the visitors to a 1-1 draw. Playing in Russia is not always easy for away teams especially for teams coming from Spain and England. The
long plane journey does tend to take its toll and normally a point is not such a bad result.
"We knew that Rubin would make things very difficult for us. They play well together at the back and they have also scored a penalty against us.
"Perhaps we lacked some fluency in our attack in order to find holes in a defence as tight as theirs." Said Messi.
Meanwhile David Villa the world cup hero for Spain and also the goal scorer for Barcelona in the 1-1 draw, has been ruled out of the weekend tie against Mallorca which may mean that Messi might start in the next domestic game.
Staying with Spanish teams, Karim Benzema is a player who moved to Real Madrid last season with great expectations. The French striker who was on the radar of many big clubs has not been able to live up to the expectations in Spain,
and has not scored regularly for Madrid. His poor form for Madrid meant that he missed out on the French team for the world cup, however after the reshaping of France team after the world cup Benzema has found himself back in the international squad.
The new French team manager Laurent Blanc has expressed his concerns over Benzema and said that, the youngster is naive at times and takes on the wrong piece of advice.
The former Lyon man moved to Real Madrid on a big 30 million pound move in the summer of 2009. After a disappointing first season, Benzema has started the 2010 season in promising fashion. He has already put his name on the score
sheet for his club and country as he netted in a goal for France against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Euro 2012 qualifier, and later was on target for Real Madrid against Espanyol in Spanish La liga.
Blanc believes that there are some people around him who offer him the wrong advice, and the young man tends to lend his ear to things that he should ignore at times.
"He is not used to working," Blanc told France Soir.
"When you are face to face with the person, they listen to you. But these same attentive and receptive people, when they go out on the street, meet people who tell them, 'You're the best, you play for Real Madrid, you don't need
to work. These are false friends."
Tags: