Spain, with four Barça players, beat Belarus 1–0

Spain started with four Barça players — Piqué, Alba, Busquets and Pedro, who was replaced just after the hour mark — when they saw off Belarus in Borisov on Sunday night. A single goal from David Silva proved enough to bag the points for Vicente Del Bosque’s side in their Euro 2016 qualifier, a result that leaves Spain 3 points behind Slovakia and three ahead of Ukraine, with both of those sides also winning on Sunday.

Jordi Alba sees plenty of ball

Spain dominated possession from the off, but despite that found it hard to create too many clear chances. Jordi Alba was getting plenty of ball down the left, despite suffering a nasty knock on 23 minutes, and linked up well with Pedro, playing a supporting role to the Juventus striker Álvaro Morata. Belarus were holding on though until just on the stroke of half-time, when Cesc sent a free kick into the box which, as the home keeper flapped, fell perfectly for Silva to slot home.

Ex-Barça man Alexander Hleb provided some nice touches of class for Belarus, who threatened more after the break, but were unable to draw level — indeed Spain should have doubled their lead on 80 minutes, when Busquets and Alba linked up to put in Silva, only for the City man to just fail to reach the cross.