Barca marvel at Messi magic

October 2, 2008

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola hailed Argentine sensation Lionel Messi following the youngsters single handed rescue of the points for the Catalan club against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday night.

Messi emerged from the bench with Barcelona trailing 1-0, scoring twice in injury time as Barcelona won 2-1.

“There is no doubt that Leo is a special player, who does things differently and is very decisive,” said Guardiola.

Messi had replaced Thierry Henry, with the Frenchman saying: “I’m very happy for Leo because he is the best player in the world.”

Eto’o added: “We’ve won thanks to the strength of the team and the plays of Messi, who has shown his talent.”

Guardiola was keen not to let Messi steal all the limelight though, insisting Barca are by no means a one-man team and even joking that he would be using the Argentinian only as a supersub in the future.

“We already know what Messi is capable of doing, but it’s not only him. We also have (Andres) Iniesta, Bojan (Krkic) and Xavi,” said the coach.

“From now on he will only play the last half-hour of matches. During pre-season we put in some great performances without him.”

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.