Worried About Exhaustion, Barcelona Rested Messi And De Jong When Facing Dynamo Kiev

Frenkie de Jong and Lionel Messi (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has revealed that Lionel Messi and Frenkie de Jong will not be included in the Barca squad when they face Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League, Tuesday or Wednesday WIB.

Koeman chose to rest the two players after playing in all of the first matches with the Blaugrana this season.

Barca will travel to Ukraine as leaders of Group G with a collection of nine points after winning the first three games.

"We decided not to take Leo or Frenkie because the situation in the Champions League is quite comfortable for us with nine points," Koeman said.

The superstar Lionel Messi has played with Barca in all games this season. He was also given full playing time while defending Argentina four times during October and November.

Likewise with De Jong who has played in every match with Los Cules as well as five international matches with the Dutch national team.

"The players need to rest and we think it's time for them to rest ... both of them have played a lot of minutes, they also played with their respective national teams," said Koeman.

"Sometimes you have to look after players because of the (match) calendar which is incredible," he added.

Not only that, Koeman was also forced to rotate the line-up following the presence of a number of their key players who were injured, such as Ansu Fati, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique.

Without the presence of key players, Barcelona also had to lose 0-1 to Atletico Madrid last weekend. Barcelona slumped in 12th place in the Spanish League standings.