Lionel Messi

Barcelona star, Lionel Messi has hit out at claims that there is a rift between him and teammate David Villa, insisting that it was "quite the opposite."

Both Messi and Villa featured in Barcelona's 2-0 victory over Granada on Saturday, with television replays showing the Argentina international berating his teammate after the collapse of an attacking move, reports Goal.com.

Nevertheless, the 25-year-old sought to play down rumours of a bust-up, and explained that it was in the heat of the moment, with the relationship between the two still positive.

"People shouldn't look for a problem where there isn't one. We've got a spectacular squad. These things are part of football, with the tension of wanting to score to make everything easier and win," Messi told the club's official TV channel.

"It happens in training, and in matches as well. I haven't got any problems with El Guaje [Villa's nickname], quite the opposite. These things show the character of the team, to want to win and keep on playing well. We get heated, because we want the best, and the tension makes you react like that."

"In the last four years here we haven't played well," Ferguson said. "Today at least we've got a result. Hopefully that's a turning point for us because if you look back over the years we always did really well here.

"I think it was about five, six, seven years in a row we did exceptionally well, but it goes in cycles anyway. Before we had that run they had a period in the late '80s of getting results against us, so it's maybe our turn to start."

The manager went on to say that despite a poor showing, he felt his veterans got his side through the match.

"I thought we were poor, to be honest with you," he said. "I think the last four years we've allowed the crowd to get to us a little bit - they give fantastic support to their team and they really dominated the first half.

"Second half they got a great start. With 10 men I thought that was a great boost to them because it was something to hold on to, but credit to the players in that respect; the second half we played much, much better, but we were against ten men. I think Scholes, Carrick and Giggs' experience got us through."