FCBARCELONA.CAT

03.09.2008 13:29

More internationals away than anyone else

Marc Guillén

FC Barcelona have the most international players awy on international for the forthcoming round of World Cup qualifiers out of all the teams in the Spanish top flight.

Until Thursday, September 11, Blaugrana coach Pep Guardiola will be without no less than 15 players who have all left to join up with their respective countries already. The rest of the clubs in la Primera have stars away too, but nowhere near as many.

Real Madrid are the club affected the second most as they have 12 players away, while Atlético de Madrid have nine, Valencia come next with eight absent and both Villarreal and Sevilla have seven away.

Racing hardly affected

Barcelona's next opponents are Racing Santander and both sides will have very different preparations ahead of the game in ten days. While Barça have most of their squad absent, Racing have just two players that will not be around.

The Cantabrian outfit have seen Mohammed Tchité travel to team up with the Belgium squad while goalkeeper Fabio Coltori has gone to be with the Switzerland set-up.