10 of the 21 members of the first team squad have already played at Wembley Stadium – the majority in the 2009 pre-season.
Bojan, Fontàs, Abidal, Pedro, Pinto, Keita, Jeffren, Valdés and Messi all played
at Wembley Stadium in July 2009, when Barça had games against Tottenham (1-1) and Al-Ahly (4-1) in
the Wembley Cup and Bojan (2), Pedro and Jeffren also know what it’s like to score at the
venue of next weekend’s
Champions League final.
Abidal with France and Alves with Brazil
Éric Abidal trod the Wembley turf last November in a friendly for
France against
England and after the game he left a note in the changing rooms to say he’d
be back in May! Dani Alves missed the
Wembley Cup, but played in one of the first games at the new
Wembley for
Brazil against England in 2007.
Eleven possible debuts
Only 11 of the squad have yet to play at Wembley then. Despite their
experience in England,
Piqué and Mascherano have not walked out onto the Wembley turf and neither have
Xavi or Puyol, who were not included in the Wembley Cup squad, nor
Iniesta, Villa, Busquets, Milito, Maxwell, Afellay or Adriano.
Lucky ground for Guardiola
Pep Guardiola knew the old
Wembley Stadium well and it has always been lucky for him: he won the 1992
European Cup there of course when he was just 21 years old and seven years later he led
Barça’s 2-4 win over
Arsenal.