Barcelona demolished Manchester City as it was a night to forget for one of the Catalan club's most important figure, Pep Guardiola who was on the losing side as Barca won 4-0 with both the teams ending the game with 10 men. However, all was not perfect for Barcelona as both Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique were substituted in the first half due to injuries and today the club has announced the extent of the duo's injury period which is not a good news for the Cules.
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Alba was the first one to be subbed off as he pulled his hamstring while chasing Manchester City's winger Raheem Sterling and suggested to the dugout to replace him immediately. He was replaced by Lucas Digne while Gerard Pique suffered an ankle injury because of a crunching tackle from David Silva for which the Spaniard was booked in the first half. The centre-back is expected to be out for three weeks whereas Alba will be on the sidelines for two weeks.
An official club statement was released today for the duo's injury extent which read, “Tests realised this morning have confirmed that Pique has a sprained ankle and will be out for around three weeks.” Regarding Alba, it read, “Tests realised this morning have confirmed that Alba has a hamstring strain. He will be out for approximately two weeks.”
The duo is expected to miss the league games against Valencia, Granada and Sevilla and also the return Champions League fixture against Manchester City and also the Catalan Super Cup tie against Espanyol. While Pique is expected to miss Spain's next fixtures in the international break, Alba will reportedly be fit by that time and will be included in the Spanish squad in November.
Barcelona thrashed City courtesy of yet another hat trick by none other than Lionel Messi and also the fourth goal by Neymar who earlier missed a penalty in the second half. Jeremy Mathieu was sent off for the Spanish champions with two yellow cards in quick succession whereas Claudio Bravo, the former Barca man who made the switch to the Etihad this summer, receive his marching orders early in the second half as handled a Luis Suarez shot from outside the 18-yard box.
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