"Obviously, it was strange to see him on the bench. We know that he is the most important player for us, but now we want him to be in good shape for Espanyol. We are going to need him for that game," said Messi.

"After so much talk in the past week, we have demonstrated on the field that what we must do is to play and to win. We did it on Saturday. Today, we obtained here a good result. Now it is necessary to win the derby.

"It will be very important to begin winning away from home."

On Lyon's tough tackling, Messi added: "It was not directed only to me, but to all the Barca players. We knew that it was going to happen, because they fighting for survival in this competition. The truth is that some of their players went in too strongly."