Keita returns and Adriano joins the group at Tuesday training

After three days of rest, the first team returned to training on Tuesday morning. The major news from the session centered around the return of Keita, who played on Saturday with his national team, and Adriano, who was injured during the UEFA Super Cup match with Porto.

Seven players of the first team have exercised this Tuesday morning on pitch no. 2 of the Ciutat Esportiva. Those working included Pinto, Fontàs, Maxwell, Puyol and Afellay, all of whom trained last week, and Keita and Adriano, the novelties at today’s session.

Because of national team commitments, Guardiola has so far been unable to prepare with his his full squad for Saturday’s match against Real Sociedad. However, the international players will be added back to the team throughout the week, and Keita, who played on Saturday with Mali, has already rejoined his Barça team mates.

The other newly returning face at training was Adriano, who in previous days has been working apart from the group after picking up an injury, but who today was seen working with his team mates. The other injured members of the team -Puyol, Maxwell and Afellay- also trained with the main group. The only player absent was Gerard Piqué, also injured, who worked in the gym.

Pep Guardiola called up eight players from Barça B for today’s training session. Oier, Masip, Gustavo, Carmona, Gerard Deulofeu, Oriol Rosell, Cuenca and Lobato, footballers who didn’t play on Sunday in the reserves’ match against Cartagena, were able to work under Guardiola.

The blaugrana internationals are expected back in Barcelona on Wednesday and will train under the orders of Guardiola once again. The session is scheduled for 19:00 at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

Alexis Sánchez and Dani Alves, who have already finished their national team duties, will return to the squad on Wednesday with the rest of the international players. The coaching staff decided to give them both an extra day to rest.

Small group at Thursday training

With the departure of Seydou Keita to the Mali national team, five Barça players -Pinto and Fontàs, and the injured trio of Puyol, Maxwell and Afellay- exercised on Thursday morning at the Ciutat Esportiva. Piqué and Adriano have worked outside the group as they continue with their recoveries.

The international matches over the next few days are very noticeable at Can Barça, with 14 players currently away working with their national teams. That has meant that first team training sessions this week have involved only a small group. After training on Wednesday, Keita became the latest player to depart for his national team.

Pitch no. 2 of the Ciutat Esportiva was the setting for the latest training, which unlike Wednesday, was not held in conjunction with Barça B. The reserve team led by Eusebio does have a game this weekend, on Sunday at 18:00 as they travel to meet Cartagena.

Tito Vilanova, who is leading the session while Pep Guardiola is participating in UEFA’s meeting of coaches in Nyon, was able to work with Pinto, Fontàs, and the injured Puyol, Maxwell and Afellay. Four players from Barça B joined in the first team training session: Masip, Deulofeu, Femenía and Lobato.

On pitch no. 1 Adriano and Muniesa could be found, working to recover from their respective injuries. Meanwhile, Piqué did specific work in the gym.

Barça, missing the majority of the squad, will return for another training session on Friday morning. The group will begin working at 9:30 at the Ciutat Esportiva and the first 15 minutes will be open to the media. This will be the last session of the week as the coaches wish to rest the players who have stayed in Barcelona.

Pique able to train a bit on Friday morning

Gerard Pique, who trained on his own on Thursday, has seen an improvement in his condition, and managed to do some training with his team mates in the session on Friday morning.

This morning at 9am, Barça held their first session of the day. The training involved the 14 first team players who took part on Thursday and also Gerard Piqué, who was able to train a bit with the group. Also working under Guardiola were Barça B players Martín Montoya and Jonathan dos Santos.

 

For their parts, Afellay, Puyol, Maxwell and Sergio Busquets did specific work to aid their recovery from various injuries, and Xavi Hernandez worked normally with the group.

After a second session on Friday afternoon, the team will train again on Saturday morning. After the session, Josep Guardiola will hold a press conference ahead of the game against Real Madrid and, afterwards, the team will travel to Madrid.

Source: fcbarcelona.cat; Images: Miguel Ruiz (FCB)