Messi breaks arm in Barcelona win, Lopetegui under fire as Madrid lose

Lionel Messi will miss next week’s match with Real Madrid after breaking his right arm in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Sevilla in La Liga on Saturday.

“It's an important loss and we have some difficult rivals to face but we have the players to come in,” said Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde. 

“There are games when he has not played from the start and we have played with the same idea. We have to stay focussed on the important games that we have.”

It was bad news for Barcelona who had early watched pressure mount on Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui after Real Madrid were beaten 2-1 by Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid have now gone five games without victory in all competitions and set a new club record of 481 minutes without scoring before Marcelo's second half strike.

Real Madrid are left in fifth place, four points behind leaders Barcelona.

Levante took the lead against Madrid after just seven minutes when a long ball over the top from Sergio Postigo dropped to Jose Luis Morales who scored.

Things went from bad to worse for Real when Raphael Varane handled on the edge of the area. The referee gave a free-kick but the video assistant (VAR) alerted him to the incident having taken place inside the box and pointed to the spot.

Roger Marti stepped up to take the penalty sending it past Thibaut Courtois on 13 minutes.

Madrid thought they had scored when Sergio Ramos headed against the bar and Marco Asensio nodded it over the line but VAR adjudged Asensio to have been offside.

Madrid pulled a goal back in the second half when substitute Karim Benzema set-up Marcelo and he smashed it into the roof of the net.

It came after the team extended their long goalless run beyond the previous worst of 464 minutes in 1985.

Mariano Diaz thought he had equalized late on but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Real Madrid defender Dani Ceballos was asked directly about his coach’s future after the game. He said: “It’s not my decision but we are with the coach and we have to look towards the next game.

“We had to win this one 100 per cent and we were not able to.”

Later Barcelona took the lead at the Camp Nou after just two minutes when Philippe Coutinho scored from Messi’s pass.

Messi doubled the advantage on 12 minutes from Luis Suarez’ pass but the talismán then had to go off after falling badly on his right arm.

The forward clashed with Franco Vazquez and left the pitch with his right arm heavily strapped.

He was taken to Barcelona’s Joan Gamper training ground where tests were carried out to diagnose the extent of the injury.

Suarez made it 3-0 on 63 minutes from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Tomas Vaclik.

Pablo Sarabia made it 3-1 with 11 minutes left and Luis Muriel scored on 90 minutes but only after Ivan Rakitic had hit the fourth for Barcelona.

Sevilla coach Pablo Machin said of Messi’s early injury: “He did enough in the time he was on the pitch. He is the best player in the world.”

Elsewhere in La Liga Valencia drew 1-1 with Leganes and Villarreal played out the same score against Atletico Madrid.