The dressing room faces the match against Betis as if it were a final

“We played our first final of the season.” With this mentality the Koeman team jumped to the Tito Vilanova field of the Ciutat Esportiva to start the last training session before this Saturday's game against Betis (4.15pm) at the Camp Nou.

The team left fifteen minutes late to the field of play because before, inside the locker room, Ronald Koeman met with his players for a little harangue to his pupils. And it is that the Betis party has become vital for Blaugrana aspirations in LaLiga, especially after the last disappointing results – two defeats and two draws – which have left the team very far from the top positions. With only eight points in six days, Barcelona is currently in the lower middle zone of the classification, although it is true that he still has two more games to play.

Koeman doesn't want any excuses ahead of the game against Betis. He did not like the image of the team despite winning against Dinamo Kiev (2-1) last Wednesday and wait for a reaction immediate of his men this Saturday.

The Dutch coach continues to count on the casualties of Coutinho, Araújo and Umtiti, although the latter has already been exercising with the group for a week, but recovers the subsidiary's central defender, Óscar Mingueza, after overcoming his hamstring injury, to complete the list in this position, where he only has two players available in the first team: Piqué and Lenglet.

The good news from this Friday's session is that all the players in the squad tested negative for the PCR test and they will be able to be under the orders of Koeman for the match against Betis.