Xavi names first squad

On Saturday morning, Xavi Hernández announced his first ever squad, which is for the evening’s derby at home to Espanyol at 9.00pm CET. And the big news is that four essential players have all been declared fully fit: Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Eric Garcia and Nico González.

His list of 23 players is as follows: Ter Stegen, Piqué, R. Araujo, Sergio, Riqui Puig, Memphis, Demir, Neto, Coutinho, Lenglet, L. De Jong, Jordi Alba, S. Roberto, F. De Jong, O. Mingueza, Umtiti, Eric, Iñaki Peña, Nico, Gavi, Balde, Ez Abde and I. Akhomach.

Absent through injury are Sergiño Dest, Ousmane Dembéle, Ansu Fati, Martin Braithwaite, Pedri and Kun Agüero. 

Warm-up in Camp Nou

Xavi held one last training session on the morning of the match to fine-tune the details, the big difference being that rather than Ciutat Esportiva training ground, the venue was the Camp Nou itself.