Gerardo Martino, the coach of Barcelona has suggested Lionel Messi could return from injury in Tuesday’s Super Cup second leg clash against Athletico Madrid but he was not much impressed by the performance as they stumbled to a 1-0 victory over Malaga on Sunday.
Adriano scored a goal in first half which was enough to maintain Barca’s perfect record in their opening two matches, lthough Malaga were unlucky not to salvage a point with a late flurry of attacks on the away side’s goal.
Martino said that “Seing their dominance they should give the results beyond doubt”.
“Today Barcelona started well but we were worse as the game went on,” he said. “We lacked some effectiveness and chances for all of the possession we had. Until the 25th minute of the second half, we had complete control – only at the end did we not have the ball and they had two very good chances.”
Messi was left out of Martino’s squad for the trip to Malaga, as he was suffering from an injury during last week’s draw with Atletico, but he admits that he is recovering fast and will return soon.
“Messi worked at the club today. We’ll see how he feels,” Martino added. “There’s two days remaining before the game, but we are very pleased with his progress.”