Ronald Koeman had a work session planned at 11 am at the Ciutat Esportiva for this Sunday. However, the Barcelona coach has decided to cancel training at the last minute and give his men a day off, as a clear demonstration that he is more than satisfied with the game of his own, despite the defeat (1-3) against Real Madrid. A break that in theory should also serve to change the chip and turn the page because on Wednesday they have an unavoidable Champions League appointment against Juventus in Turin.
However, not all first team footballers are released this Sunday. A total of four are scheduled for 11:30 am at the Ciutat Esportiva to train with the Barcelona B squad. Those pointed out by Koeman are Riqui Puig, Carles Aleñá, Junior Firpo and Matheus Fernandes. This quartet will be joined by the youngsters from the subsidiary who regularly train with the first team: Iñaki Peña, Arnau Tenas, Konrad de la Fuente and Ramos Mingo.
That stands out the absence of central Ronald Araujo among this group of players who will exercise this Sunday with the subsidiary. The reason is because the Uruguayan central defender will start this Wednesday in the Champions before Gerard Piqué was dismissed due to a sanction and they do not want to overload him with work.
So that, the list of players released by Koeman is made up of the eleven starters against Real Madrid, plus Dembélé, Griezmann, Braithwaite and Trincao -all played a few minutes in the second half-, in addition to Pjanic, Araujo and Sergi Roberto. A total of 18 players, who are clearly the men destined to participate, in one way or another, in the match of Champions of this week against Juventus.