Barcelona boss Tito Vilanova has moved to explain the absence of Lionel Messi as his side crashed out of the UEFA Champions League semifinals with a 7-0 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
The Catalans lost the second leg at the Nou Camp 3-0 to the Bavarians, who now advance to the decider against fellow Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund.
However, the absence of the Ballon d’Or winner Messi was obvious in Barcelona’s defeat, leaving them short of their brilliant best, as he sat on the bench unused.
“Lionel Messi played in Bilbao [last weekend] because he felt better. In the final stages of that game he noticed a strange sensation but there wasn’t an injury,” Vilanova said.
“He wasn’t feeling well although he was training. He felt that in that condition he couldn’t help the team. It’s normal that you would notice an absentee like Messi.”
Vilanova admitted his side’s injury problems and fatigue from another long season hadn’t helped their cause.
“Bayern got to this stage of the tournament at a great level physically, in comparison with ours,” he said.
“Their players are all in top form while ours aren’t, and that’s the area in which we need to recover. We had a lot of players missing too.”