{"id":135824,"date":"2021-09-28T03:30:50","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T03:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=135824"},"modified":"2021-09-28T07:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T07:03:17","slug":"messi-set-to-be-given-another-blast-from-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=135824","title":{"rendered":"Messi set to be given another blast from past"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Pep Guardiola<\/a>, the unthinkable could happen on Tuesday: seeing Lionel Messi<\/a> in the jersey of a team that isn\u2019t Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Messi has recovered from a knee injury and is expected to return for Paris Saint-Germain against Manchester City in a rematch of last season's Champions League semi-final.<\/p>\n

Watch Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo and football's biggest superstars in the<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0UEFA Champions League\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a>with every match streaming ad free, live and on demand only on Stan Sport. Start your seven day free trial<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino did not reveal his lineup but said the Argentina star was fit to play.<\/p>\n

Messi had previously been ruled out of two consecutive league games following a knock to his left knee on his home debut earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\"Lionel<\/p>\n

Against City, he will be up against Guardiola, who was Messi's coach at Barcelona between 2008 and 2012 during an exceptionally fruitful spell. Among their many titles, the pair won the Champions League in 2009 and 2011, with the six-time Ballon d'Or winner scoring in both finals.<\/p>\n

In total, Messi scored 211 goals in 219 games in all competitions under Guardiola, who reportedly failed to secure his transfer to City during the summer.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Gallen's warning to NRL stars amid new scandal<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a little bit of a surprise for everyone, but what happened has happened," Guardiola said when asked about Messi playing for another club than Barcelona. \u201cA few years ago, you could not imagine. But football, you never know. Life, you never know what is going to happen in a short time."<\/p>\n

Messi, 34, has featured in only three matches for PSG and is still chasing his first goal following his shock move.<\/p>\n

\"Pep<\/p>\n

In addition to the Lyon game where he got injured, Messi also made a substitute appearance on his debut against Reims and started in attack alongside Kylian Mbappe and Neymar in the 1-1 draw at Club Brugge in their opening Champions League group game.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the player work, let the player adapt and start to feel at home," Pochettino said. \u201cHe was at Barcelona for 20 years. It is normal that he feels at home in Barcelona. Now everything is new. For sure he is going to succeed.\u201c<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>David Warner dropped by IPL team<\/a><\/p>\n

With Messi fit, Pochettino could field his formidable attacking trident. Although the trio did not impress against Brugge, Guardiola said he does not have a recipe to stop them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are so good. This amount of talent, together, it\u2019s so difficult," he said. \u201cWe are going to try to defend well when we don\u2019t have the ball, and make them run when we have the ball."<\/p>\n

\"Neymar<\/p>\n

City won 2-1 in Paris and 2-0 at home in last season\u2019s semifinal. The Manchester club is unbeaten in its five matches with PSG, but Guardiola brushed off any notion his players will start with a psychological edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confidence is not about we beat them in the knockouts last season," he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a new season, a new challenge. I don\u2019t care if you win three games in a row, or lose three games in a row, this is a new one."<\/p>\n

Following its 6-3 win against Leipzig, City leads Group A with three points, two more than PSG and Brugge.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Pep Guardiola, the unthinkable could happen on Tuesday: seeing Lionel Messi in the jersey of a team that isn\u2019t Barcelona. Messi has recovered from […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135826,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824\/revisions\/135826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}