No fewer than eight members of the academy setup at Barcelona were spotted training alongside the club’s first-team stars this afternoon.
This comes amid ongoing preparations for the Blaugrana’s weekend return to action.
Fresh off a timely pair of back-to-back victories, over Osasuna and Alavés, Barca will be hopeful of making it three from three on Sunday, when they welcome relegation-battling Granada to Catalunya for a La Liga clash.
Xavi and co. will head into proceedings in the knowledge that a three-point haul could prove crucial to their hopes of climbing the standings in Spain’s top-flight with a view to the remainder of the season.
This comes with Real Madrid and Girona primed to face off in a top-of-the-table showdown on Saturday evening.
Should the latter fall to defeat, an ensuing Barcelona victory would see the Catalans close the gap on Míchel’s high-flying men to just three points.
Such endeavours on the part of Sunday’s hosts will be aided to no end by the return of two key performers from injury – Raphinha and Marc-André ter Stegen are both in line to feature against Granada.
And yet, in the buildup to the clash, Xavi has nevertheless seen fit to afford a chance to impress to a whole host of the next breakthrough Blaugrana talents.
As revealed by Diario Sport, eight youth team players joined Barca’s first-team stars in training on Thursday.
The youngsters in question? Pau Cubarsí, Héctor Fort, Marc Casadó, Pau Víctor, Unai, Mikayil Faye, Quim Junyent and Brian Fariñas.
Conor Laird | GSFN
