The Barça will try to make official this afternoon in Getafe (7:30 p.m.) that ‘minimum objective’ that means finishing second in the League. While Xavi Hernandez, the Barça coach, admitted in the press conference prior to the penultimate match of this season that next season they will need to win titles, the immediate duty involves a victory at the Alfonso Pérez Coliseum, which would mathematically certify the runner-up position. As the main prize, sporting and economic, the second place ensures the dispute of the future Super Cup. A draw would also virtually confirm that consolation achievement, given that the overall ‘goalaverage’ with respect to Atlético (12 goals ahead for Barça) is practically insurmountable for the mattress team, which also faces difficult matches against Sevilla and Real Sociedad. The good news for Barça could be the line-up of Ronald Araujoafter his accident at Barça-Celta.
“He wants to play,” Xavi announced about the Uruguayan center-back, four days after he had to leave the Camp Nou pitch in an ambulance after accidentally colliding head to head with his teammate Gavi. “Araujo wants to play and his commitment excites us all”, stressed Xavi, before clarifying that the Uruguayan “did not lose consciousness at any time, as the doctors and his teammates said”. Playing or not “will depend on his feelings”, but for now the culé coach anticipated that “Araujo trained very well”.
Aligning Araujo would alleviate the number of casualties registered by Barça: Frenkie de Jong y Jordi Alba are punished, while Eric Garcia, Pedri, Nico, Sergi Roberto, Gerard Piqué y Sergiño Dest they are injured. The great absentee in yesterday’s morning training was Martin Braithwaite, who was unable to participate in the session due to general malaise. The Barça coach also demanded the presence in the training of the youngsters of the subsidiary Mika Marmol, Alejandro Balde, Alvaro Sanz, Jandro Orellana and the goalkeeper Lazar Carevic, who completed the session. Of the four, only Alvaro Sanz has debuted in the ‘Xavi era. The culé coach will give the squad list this morning before flying to Madrid.
The sanctioned player will not play at Getafe Stefan Mitrovic nor the injured Jaime Mata y Jonathan Silvain addition to Cabaco, removed for indiscipline. The point also serves Getafe to confirm its continuity in the First Division, which feeds malicious speculation with an ‘entente cordiale’ that Xavi denied. “Tie? There is a 33% chance, but there is a 66% chance that the other two outcomes will occur,” he argued.
“We will not play to draw, we will play to win”, confirmed the Getafe coach, more than 600 kilometers away. Quique Sanchez Flores. Today we will leave doubts.
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