Champions League: Messi approves Setien’s replacement after Barcelona’s 8-2 defeat

Messi saw Barcelona thrashed 8-2 by their Bundesliga counterparts in the Champions League last-8 final tie on Friday night in Portugal.

Thomas Muller and Philippe Coutinho both scored braces for Bayern, with Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich and Robert Lewandowski also on target.

Barcelona did strike through an own-goal from David Alaba and Luis Suarez’s second-half strike.

However, according to Catalan newspaper, Sport, Messi has already approved Pochettino as the next manager of Barcelona to the club’s president, Josep Bartomeu and has been doing his best to persuade the 48-year-old Argentine to take over at Camp Nou.

Bartomeu is now set to bring Pochettino in, believing the former Spurs boss to be the right man to replace Setien, who took over from Ernesto Valverde in January, at this moment in time.

Pochettino, who has been out of work since October, had drawn the interest of Barcelona in the past.