Messi one of three Barcelona stars left out of Champions League squad

The Barcelona skipper will sit out of his second Champions League game in a row along with two other senior stars.

Ronald Koeman has left Lionel Messi, Philippe Coutinho, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen behind in Catalonia for Barcelona’s trip to Ferencvaros in the Champions League.

The Blaugrana boss’ decision to rest the trio comes in light of the club’s strong start to Group G, having won all four of their games. Qualification into the last-16, therefore, is already secured. The only thing left is winning the group itself, with second-place Juventus just three points behind the leaders.

But as Barcelona are expected to claim another win on Wednesday anyway, Koeman has chosen to rest Messi once more after leaving him out of the 4-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv last week along with Coutinho and Ter Stegen.

Although Frenkie de Jong, who joined Messi on the sidelines in Ukraine, is back in the squad. Clement Lenglet is also in, despite suffering a slight knock during last weekend’s 4-0 win over Osasuna in LaLiga.