Madrid: Joan Felix gave the scare of the night after FC Barcelona claimed their third win in three games in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Barca’s hard-fought 2-1 win at home to Shakhtar Donetsk came thanks to goals from Ferran Torres and Fermin Lopez, although they had to withstand a difficult last 15 minutes after the Ukrainian side pulled a goal back.
Barca coach Xavi Hernandez looked clearly worried in the 74th minute when forward Joao Feliz went to ground and then had to be helped off the pitch to be replaced by 17-year-old Marc Guiu.
At the time it looked as if the Portuguese player, who has impressed on loan from Atletico Madrid, had suffered a muscle problem and would join an injury list that already contains Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Jules Kounde, Sergi Roberto, Raphinha and Frenkie de Jong ahead of Saturday’s ‘Clasico’ at home to Real Madrid.
However, Joao Felix told the press after the game that he hadn’t suffered a muscle injury, while Xavi commented in his post-game press conference that it “was just a knock.”
“He has to recover and prepare for the next game,” added the coach, although with hardly any recovery time before the Clasico on Saturday afternoon, the media will be looking closely to see whether Joao Felix takes any part in Thursday and Friday’s training sessions.
–IANS
Comments are closed.