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Athletic Bilbao manager Marcelino has a plan on how to stop Lionel Messi when they take on Barcelona tonight.
Lionel Messi was the best player on the pitch the last time Barcelona faced Athletic Bilbao in the La Liga. However, he had a forgettable outing when the two sides clashed in the Spanish Super Cup final earlier this month.
Messi was shown a red card in the dying embers of the game for violent conduct. But the Argentine has found form again and Athletic Bilbao boss Marcelino is well aware of the threat he poses.
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Marcelino has now revealed his team's plan to stop Messi ahead of Athletic's clash with Barcelona.
Marcelino discusses plans to stop Lionel Messi when Athletic Bilbao takes on Barcelona
Lionel Messi will be hunting his 650th goal against Athletic Bilbao tonight. Speaking about his team's strategy on how to deal with Lionel Messi, Marcelino said:
“We are not going to mark Messi individually, but we must limit his participation as much as possible and be attentive to the ball and where it can reach him.
“We will try to ensure that Messi has the minimum possible participation and when he does, it should be as limited as possible in time and space.”
Marcelino also talked about Lionel Messi's performance in the Spanish Super Cup final and Barcelona's other attacking threats.
“In the final, it seemed that Messi was weakened and he was not so decisive, and we hope that in this third game it will be the same again. With Messi, Barça is more difficult to counter. There is a footballer who is above the rest and it’s Messi.
The statistics and the games we all see make us think so. They have other good players; there’s one who is in an extraordinary moment, De Jong. Pedri played a spectacular game, Dembélé and Griezmann are very good. These are players we can’t give a meter or a second to.”
Lionel Messi returned to action after serving his suspension in Barcelona's Copa Del Rey Round of 16 tie against Rayo Vallecano. He marked his return with an equalizer for Barcelona in the 69th minute of the game after Rayo Vallecano had taken the lead in 63rd via Fran Garcia.
Frenkie De Jong then scored the winner for Barcelona 11 minutes later and helped the Cules progress to the quarter-finals of the cup competition.
