Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde has paid tribute to his team for beating Inter Milan and Real Madrid in their last two matches without the services of Lionel Messi.

Messi suffered a fractured arm in Barcelona's 4-2 win over Sevilla on October 20 and has missed his team's last two games.

The Catalan giants beat Inter 2-0 before thumping Los Blancos 5-1 in El Clasico, however, and Valverde has said that he is "really proud of the team" for dealing with the absence of the Argentine.

"It was an extremely difficult week with Leo's absence and our run of fixtures," Marca reports Valverde as saying. "I'm really proud of the team in that time period because we found a really strong dynamic with the team and discovered a good rhythm."

Barcelona are in Copa del Rey action away to Cultural Leonesa on Wednesday night.