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Lionel Messi and Frenkie de Jong have been rested by Ronald Koeman for the next Barcelona Champions League clash in Ukraine against Dynamo Kiev.
With Barça at the top of Group G after three victories to start their European campaign, Koeman has chosen to leave Messi and De Jong out of the traveling squad, and the Catalan club also without Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto after the couple suffered serious injuries on the first day of Saturday. -0 loss to Atlético de Madrid in the League.
Only three recognized defenders are on the squad for Tuesday’s Champions League tie, and Koeman said FIFA and UEFA must rethink the schedule as it is “impossible” to keep players in shape.
“Sometimes you need to protect the players because the game schedule is incredible,” Koeman said.
“We thought it was a good time to rest Leo and Frenkie, since most of our players have played every minute with us and then played with the national teams and Messi had a difficult trip back from South America (after playing for Argentina) “.
He added: “It is impossible to keep the players in shape.
“Look at the example of Sergi Roberto, the reason he got injured was from playing too many games. Everybody knows it, but we still have to keep playing this many games, it’s incredible.
“It’s time for UEFA, FIFA to think about what they are doing to footballers, the amount of games they need to play is crazy.”
