FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.05.2007 12:42

Not a typical week

Miriam Nadal

Because of international matches and the semi-finals of the Catalonia Cup, this coming week will differ to the norm and comes in the middle of a nerve-racking end to the season.

After the victory against Getafe this Saturday at the Camp Nou, Frank Rikjaard’s men face a break from the usual routine. National team obligations and the cup competition break up the run-in to the season’s end for the next seven days.

Catalonia Cup and Internationals

The squad will train together this Tuesday at eleven in the morning to prepare for the cup match with Nastíc, being played on Thursday at ten in the evening at the Tarragona club’s home ground. The other training sessions of the week will be marked by the absence of those players with international matches. Thirteen players in all have been selected for matches between the 1st and 6th of June. Thuram, Gudjohnson, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Zambrotta (pending fitness test) are due to play classification games for the European Championship 2008. Samuel Eto’o represents Cameroon against Liberia to classify for the African Cup.

Friendlies

Deco, Gio, Ronaldinho, Edmilson, Leo Messi and Saviola face friendly matches with their own national teams. Gio is set to play for Holland against South Korea on the 2nd of June, Deco for Portugal against Kuwait on the 5th and the Brazilians face two matches, against England and then against Turkey in Germany. Messi and Saviola represent Argentina against Switzerland.

Reserves to be called into the squad

Because of the internationals, Frank Rijkaard is set to call on players from Barça’s second team for the cup match with Nastíc.

All in all it will be a strange week at a critical moment for the Barcelona team.