BARCELONA: Lionel Messi will be out for up to eight weeks with knee ligament damage suffered as Barcelona beat Las Palmas 2-1 in La Liga on Saturday.

Barca’s troubles were eased, though, as Real Madrid remain a point behind the Catalans after being held 0-0 at home by 10-man Malaga.

Villarreal moved past both powerhouses into first place with 16 points, one point ahead of Barca and two ahead of Real and Celta Vigo, after they edged Atletico Madrid 1-0 at their El Madrigal’s stadium with Leo Baptistao scoring against his parent club.

Iago Aspas grabbed a 76th-minute equaliser to give fourth-placed Celta a 1-1 draw at Eibar while Sevilla substitute Yevhen Konoplyanka netted a free kick with four minutes to go to snatch a 3-2 win over visiting Rayo Vallecano that pulled the Andalusian side out of last place.

Luis Suarez bagged a double for Barca but their victory came at a cost as Messi tore a ligament in his left knee.

The club’s all-time leading scorer asked to be substituted in the eighth minute after he had tried to return to the match following a collision with Las Palmas defender Daniel Castellano.

Medical tests at a local hospital found that he had torn a ligament, and the club said Messi was ruled out for up to two months.

“This is a test and an extra motivation for this team,” Barca coach Luis Enrique said. “We have to accept the challenge and improve our performances because we are capable of it.”

Suarez gave Barca the breakthrough with a powerful header into the corner from a Sergi Roberto cross after 25 minutes and got what proved to be the winner in the 54th when he converted a pass from Munir El Haddadi, who had replaced Messi.

Barca were then forced to see out a nervous last few minutes as Las Palmas took advantage of an error from Javier Mascherano to pull a goal back as Jonathan Viera’s shot deflected in off Gerard Pique three minutes from time.

Real pushed forward from the start in their match against Malaga but a combination of fine goalkeeping from Carlos Kameni and near misses prevented them from breaking the deadlock.

Malaga’s most dangerous player Nordin Amrabat was sent off for elbowing Marcelo after 76 minutes, but Real could not find a way through, and it was a frustrating match for Cristiano Ronaldo and his fellow forwards.

“Football has these type of things. You dominate a large part of the game, create loads of chances, but if you aren’t clinical you end up drawing 0-0,” said Real boss Rafael Benitez.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play