ALBA RULED OUT

Jordi Alba’s injured that he picked up in Barcelona’s match against Sevilla has left the left-back unable to play in the main squad of the Catalan team for over 80 days but he finally made his full recovery and a substitute appearance during the Copa del Rey match against Cartagena in which the team of Tata Martino won 4-1 as they played at the Municipal Stadium on December 6th.

The coach Gerardo Martino was pleased on seeing him back into the team playing after such a long injury spell.

“We knew that Alba was fit and we need him to get some confidence back. He’s had two consecutive injuries that have kept him out so far. He played longer than he perhaps should have played in the last game, but he did very well,” Martino told reporters at a press conference.

“We’re very happy to have him back in the group. We already know what he brings to the team. He has excellent individual technical ability and he’s very unsettling for opponents.”

The defensive side of Barcelona has always been an area that the Catalan team were struggling on reinforcing and after the 2012 Euro concluded, a number of top clubs took an interest in signing Jordi Alba as he grabbed the spotlight of the media by doing a superb job in the entire competition and Barcelona did not hesitate in signing him with a transfer fee of €14 million.

Jordi Alba is becoming an important defensive figure for Barcelona along with Pique, Montoya and Bartra as they are the regular starters for Gerardo Martino in the defence of the team and now the struggles and weaknesses that Barcelona was showing in this side of the squad is slowly diminishing.