Messi to recover in Argentina

Lionel Messi has travelled to Argentina to carry out the main part of his recovery from the hamstring injury sustained in a Champions League game against Celtic. The FC Barcelona player, who flew to his home country along with his parents yesterday, is expected to stay there until the end of March. Lionel will then come back to Barcelona for the final stretch in his recovery process. During his time in Argentina, Messi's recuperation work will be done at the Arroyo Seco training fields -near Rosario- and will be supervised by physiotherapists from the Argentinian Football Association. Leo's return to play is set to take place towards the end of April.

Messi gets injured again

Barcelona beat Celtic (1-0) yesterday at the Camp Nou and got through to the Champions League quarter-finals; however, the Spanish team's victory was sadly overshadowed by the injury picked up by Lionel Messi.Around the 30th minute of the game, Leo Messi felt a sudden pain in his left leg right after having started a run. The Argentinian forward, who immediately realized the damage, fell to the ground and left the pitch in tears soon after. It was later revealed that Messi had torn his left hamstring muscle. This is an injury of the same type as the one Leo picked up in a game against Valencia last December. It took him five weeks to recover then, and the initial estimations are that now he could be out of the pitches for a similar time. The player will be submitted to further tests today in order to determine the extent of his injury more accurately.

Barça win to move two points behind the leaders

The combination of FC Barcelona's victory (5-1) over Levante this evening at the Camp Nou and Real Madrid's 1-0 home defeat against Getafe has pushed the blaugrana side within two points of the Spanish league top.Barça showed their clear superiority over Levante, the last team on the table. Lionel Messi's contribution was once again one of the keys to his side's victory. The Argentinian forward gave Barcelona a comforting 2-1 lead right before the break after picking up a back heel pass from Xavi (who had scored the opening goal) and taking a left-foot shot to beat the keeper near the left post. It was Lionel's ninth goal in the competition. In the second period, Messi used his right foot to produce two passes that were converted into goals by Samuel Eto'o. The Cameroonian striker went on to score a hat-trick, wrapping up the win with Barça's fifth goal three minutes from time.The results of this 25th league date will surely provide a morale boost to Barcelona, who will now have to face the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals against Valencia at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.