FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.01.2008 11:31

Getting ready for the cup

Berta Brau / Anna Segura

The first team trained on Tuesday morning at La Masia as they get ready for Thursday’s cup encounter with Villarreal.

After a recuperation session on Monday, Frank Rijkaard now has his eyes on the cup quarter final against Villarreal, the time of which has been confirmed as 22.00 on Thursday. Deco was back to work after the club had given him permission to miss training on Monday.

19 players

Frank Rijkaard had his full squad with him, with the exceptions of the injured Ronaldinho and Ezquerro.

Carles Puyol, who has a bit of a cold, joined the other players at La Masia but after chatting to Rijkaard for a while, opted to finish his training session alone in the gym.

Possession play

After passing the ball around in groups of three, the players divided into two teams to play a game without goals. The aim was just to keep possession and work on speed and putting pressure on opposing players.

The orange bibs were worn by Deco, Bojan, Xavi, Abidal, Edmílson, Thuram and Milito, playing against the bib-less Henry, Gudjohnsen, Zambrotta, Giovani, Sylvinho, Oleguer and Messi. At the start of the game, Iniesta and Márquez played as extras, joining whichever team had possession of the ball, a role that was later occupied by Deco and Gudjohnsen.

Circuit training

The players that started against Racing then did a series of sprints before heading off to the showers. The other players stayed on the pitch a little longer and did circuit training.