Valverde: why I rested Messi
​Speaking after the Catalans earned a 0-0 draw with Juventus at the Allianz Stadium, the former Athletic Coach justified the decision to bench the Argentine by saying that he had already previously considered resting him.
The manager also reassured fans that the 30-year-old wasn’t injured.
“Messi? He’s fine. He’s played a lot lately and it’s true that there have been times when we’ve thought about resting him or bringing him on for the second half.
“We also expected the game to start tightly and open up as it went on. After that, we came to the decision. These are things that the Coach decides internally.”
Messi would probably have made a difference, Barca coming close to scoring twice. He is already in double figures in Liga action this season.
Valverde was still positive about the relatively tame match.
“We came here with the intention of winning and picking up three points,” he said after the draw.
“We played with character because they’re a team that press you a lot. When they have space, they can hurt you because they have quality, but there were many times when we dominated them, except towards the end.
“We controlled the game, we’re happy and we’re top of our group. It’s what we wanted.”