Wednesday 3rd Nov.2021: Paris Saint-Germain’s star,Lionel Messi will miss the clubs Champions League clash with RB Leipzig due to injury, his club confirmed Tuesday.
Messi, a six-time Ballon d’Or winner injured his left hamstring and has a painful knee, a message from the club said, and sits out Wednesday’s match away to Leipzig.
Team mate and PSG player,Georginio Wijnaldum replied when asked if Messi would be missed “If you have a player like Messi in your team, you are automatically stronger.”
The Argentine scored two second-half goals as PSG fought back to beat Leipzig 3-2 when the sides met in Paris two weeks ago.
“Every game has it’s own difficulties, we know tomorrow will be tough as Leipzig are a good team. We hope Messi will be back soon,” said PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Messi went off at half-time of PSG’s 2-1 Ligue 1 victory over Lille last Friday and missed training on Monday.
However ,Leipzig coach Jesse Marsch believes PSG even without the four-time Champions League winner are still a difficult side with “another difficult task”, with Kylian Mbappe poised to return to the visitors’ line-up.
The Paris side top their Champions League group with seven points after three matches, a point ahead of last season’s beaten finalists Manchester City whilst Leipzig are yet to get off the mark after three defeats.
Nevertheless, having taken the lead in Paris two weeks ago, Leipzig are bullish about their chances against a PSG team including Mbappe and Brazil star Neymar.
“The game in Paris was important for us, because it showed we can deliver a good performance and understand we can do it away from home,” added Marsch.
“We totally believe in our chance, if we get three points with a big win then it would give us a lot of momentum.”
However, a fourth straight defeat in Europe would end Leipzig’s last 16 hopes.
PSG are also without midfield talisman Marco Verratti while Messi may also be a doubt for Saturday’s Ligue 1 clash between table-toppers PSG and strugglers Bordeaux.
Wednesday’s game will be the third match that Messi has missed this season due to injury, having sat out two Ligue 1 matches at the end of September.
