Midfielder Riccardo Montolivo missed out on his second straight major tournament due to injury on Tuesday while Daniele De Rossi was included in Italy's 23-man squad for next month's European Championship in France.
Messi's damning assessment of the team came home to roost when the season re-started after the coronavirus stoppage and Barca surrendered the league title to Real Madrid, prompting the captain to launch a new tirade against the team.
Barcelona twice threw away the lead to draw 3-3 at Levante on Tuesday in a potentially fatal blow to their chances of winning the La Liga title.
Captain Thiago Alcantara scored a first-half hat-trick to inspire Spain to a 4-2 win over Italy in the European Under-21 championship final on Tuesday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
A summary of Sunday's action in Serie A and La Liga.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane warned that it was still all to play for in their Champions League last-16 clash against Napoli after the holders strolled to a 3-1 win in the first leg on Wednesday.
Napoli went down 3-1 at home to RB Leipzig, Arsenal and AC Milan enjoyed comfortable away wins, and Borussia Dortmund's Michy Batshuayi scored twice to secure a 3-2 victory in Europa League last 32, first leg action
AC midfielder Franck Kessie scored from a penalty to give AC Milan a 2-2 draw away to Napoli in Serie A on Sunday, sparing the blushes of his goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma whose mistakes provided the hosts with both their goals. Sevilla closed in on Champions League qualification by beating struggling Real Mallorca 2-0 at home to open up a nine-point gap in the race for fourth spot in La Liga.
Alexis Sanchez had equalised for the visitors, scoring on the rebound after Manuel Neuer saved his 30th-minute penalty but the Gunners suffered when captain Laurent Koscielny limped off injured to leave the defence exposed.
Napoli maintained their two-point advantage at the top of Series with a 2-0 victory at Lazio on Wednesday in a game suspended due to racist chanting as Juventus beat Genoa 1-0 to break a club record for consecutive league wins in a single season.
Lazio, having endured a miserable start to the season, had high hopes of victory at Genoa, who were languishing in the relegation zone at the start of the day.
Juventus substitute Cristiano Ronaldo was denied a stoppage-time winner by VAR as Udinese came from two goals down to snatch a 2-2 draw in their thrilling Serie A season opener on Sunday.
Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a 3-1 win at home to Napoli for a 4-2 aggregate victory which took the club into the Champions League quarter-finals, where they face Bayern Munich.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Borussia Dortmund snatched a late goal at Atalanta to progress with a 1-1 draw, while AC Milan and Atletico Madrid, both with three-goal leads from the away legs, completed the formality of qualifying with 1-0 wins at home on Thursday.
Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain scored twice to put them top of Serie A with an extraordinary 2-1 win over Inter Milan who twice hit the woodwork in stoppage time after playing the entire second half with 10 men on Monday.
Arsenal had scored 10 goals in two matches against BATE Borisov in the same competition in 2017 but never looked like being as prolific in the freezing temperatures of Belarus.
Serge Gnabry scored twice as Bayern Munich beat Chelsea 3-0, while Antoine Griezmann's second-half equaliser handed Barcelona a vital away goal and earned them a 1-1 draw at Napoli in their Champions League last 16, first leg on Tuesday.
Defender Miguel Britos was sent off for head-butting an opponent as Napoli lost 3-1 at champions Juventus on Saturday, all but ending their hopes of Champions League football next season.
Wayne Rooney marked his 500th game in English league football with a coolly-taken Panenka-style penalty for Derby County in their 1-1 draw against Fulham in the Championship on Friday. The 34-year-old ex-England and Manchester United captain, who made his debut for the Midlands club earlier this month after returning from a playing stint in the United States, cleverly chipped in a 55th minute penalty for the lead.
He also finished the season five goals clear of the next leading scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus.
A bizarre own goal briefly gave Serie A leaders Juventus the jitters, triggering memories of last week's dramatic collapse at Verona, before they recovered to beat lowly Chievo 3-1 on Sunday.
Fiorentina hit four goals before halftime, including a cheeky backheel by Gonzalo Rodriguez and a Panenka-style penalty from Khouma Babacar, to beat Frosinone 4-1 and join Inter Milan at the top of Serie A on Sunday.
The victory saw the unfashionable Madrid club tighten their grip on the coveted fourth spot in the table by moving on to 58 points after 36 games, three points clear of nearest challengers Sevilla, who lost to Leganes on Friday.
Inter Milan's Serie A title hopes suffered a setback as they conceded a stoppage-time equaliser and were held 1-1 at home by relegation-threatened Carpi and leaders Napoli swept to a 4-2 win at Sampdoria.
Paris St Germain suffered their first defeat of the season when they were beaten 2-0 at Stade Rennais on Sunday to drop their first Ligue 1 points of the season.
Napoli brush aside lowly Crotone to go third in Serie A.
Mourinho's side failed to turn their domination into more goals and things got edgy late on when Saville's shot evaded Gazzaniga who seemed slow to get down.
Belgium finished five points clear at the top of League A Group 2 and will meet world champions France and former World Cup winners Italy and Spain in the final four next October.
Napoli booked a clash with AS Roma in the Italian Cup semi-finals after a late instinctive Gonzalo Higuain backheel lifted Rafael Benitez's side to a 1-0 win over Lazio on Wednesday.
Napoli rediscovered their scoring touch as they brushed aside Inter Milan 3-0 on Friday, sending their opponents' new coach Stefano Pioli back to the drawing-board.
Images from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers matches.
A round of Wednesday night's Champions League group stage matches.
Soccer highlights from across the globe.
Ireland reached the knockout phase at a European Championship for the firs time when Robbie Brady's late goal earned them a 1-0 victory against Group E winners Italy on Wednesday.
Barcelona's lead at the top of La Liga was cut after a second consecutive defeat and LeicesterCity's improbable march towards the Premier League title showed no sign of slowing as they won a fifth straight match. Juventus stayed six points clear of Napoli after Italy's top two both won and Bayern Munich extended their Bundesliga lead to seven points. Here is a summary of results from football matches played across Europe over the weekend.
Debutant Helder Costa opened the scoring on his international debut for an experimental Portugal who made 10 changes from the team which started the 3-2 Nations League win in Poland on Thursday.
Four-time European Champions Ajax Amsterdam were felled at the first hurdle of the continent's second tier Europa League on Thursday, exiting in the group stage two days after rivals PSV Eindhoven celebrated long-awaited success.
Inter Milan went on a rare scoring spree to thrash Serie A newcomers Frosinone 4-0 and go clear at the top on Sunday, the first time Roberto Mancini's team have won a league match by more than one goal this season.
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