admin
Luis Suarez will miss Barcelona’s cup game against Athletic Bilbao after the appeal against his two-game suspension was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Luis Enrique had not named him in his original squad for the game, but it was expected that he would make the trip if the CAS sided in Barca’s favour.
The Uruguayan was handed the ban after the referee’s report alleged he’d incited a bust up in the tunnel after the 4-1 win over Espanyol in a Copa del Rey earlier this month.
“I’m waiting for you, come here! You’re a waste of space,” he reportedly shouted at Espanyol’s players.
However, Barca claim those words did not come from Suarez and took their appeal to the CAS, who ultimately rejected the appeal on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old served the first game of his ban during last week’s 2-0 win over Espanyol at Cornella-El Prat.
He will now miss the first leg of the quarter-final tie with Athletic, but will be free to return for the second leg which takes place at Camp Nou next week.
Lionel Messi is also out of Barca’s trip to San Mames after Luis Enrique decided not to risk him.
The Argentine was taken off at half time of Sunday’s La Liga win over the Basque side due to a pain in his hamstring, but tests later revealed there was no injury.
However, Enrique has decided to leave Messi in Barcelona as a precaution, meaning Neymar will be the only member of the club’s feared front line available against Athletic.
Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain have requested that their next Coupe de France match be postponed in order to aid their preparations for a Champions League round-of-16 clash against Chelsea.
PSG fought back late on to beat Toulouse 2-1 in the Coupe de France on Tuesday in a performance that brought boos from supporters at half-time.
The French champions are scheduled to play in the next round of that competition on February 10 – six days before taking on Chelsea in the first leg of their European tie. A league match against Lille must be squeezed in between those two games, meaning PSG are set to play seven times before hosting Chelsea in Paris on February 16.
PSG boss Laurent Blanc said he hoped that the French Football Federation could help alleviate their “crazy” schedule by moving the date of their round-of-16 match in the Coupe de France.
“The way to sort out the problem would have been to get knocked out of the two [domestic] cup competitions, but we don’t want that,” Blanc said at a postmatch news conference.
“We’re Paris Saint-Germain – we can’t think like that – but on the other hand, I hope our last week [before the Chelsea game] will be rearranged.”
If the current schedule is maintained, PSG will end up playing 10 matches in five weeks before the first Chelsea game – four more than the English champions. If the Coupe de France fixture is moved, however, the runaway Ligue 1 leaders would get a brief break after taking on arch-rivals Marseille on February 7. That would allow them to play the Lille game on the Friday before the first leg against Chelsea.
“We hope that the federation pay attention to this request,” Blanc said. “It’s going to cause some grinding of teeth but we’re also fighting for France’s Uefa co-efficient.”— ESPNFC.
Online Reporter