According to the World Sports Newspaper, Dembele trained only a few minutes before the Maradona Cup match between Barca and Boca Youth because Xavi did not want to take any risks.
Dembele felt some discomfort in Barca's 2-2 draw with Osasuna, which led Xavi to decide to replace the French winger with Coutinho in the final moments.
Yesterday the barca team arrived in Saudi Arabia to prepare for a Maradona Cup friendly match with Boca Youth, and the traffic delay from the airport to the hotel affected the club's initial plans, so the press conference of Xavi and Alves and Barca's training session were postponed.
Barca trained on the match set, with Neto, Peña, Alves, Garcia, Lenglet, Mingeza, Matthews, Phuket, Coutinho, Dester and Demir taking the lead in the training sessions, all of whom were considered likely to start in the match. However, Luke De Jong, who did not participate in training at the beginning, may also start the battle, unless Harvey decides to use the youngster Hutegra.
Those first-team players who took part in the game against Osasuna and team B players who took part in Atlético Balearic then joined the training, but The World Sport said Dembele only trained for a few minutes because Xavi did not want to take any risks. Considering that Xavi has a very high opinion of Dembele, he also takes the best care of the French winger in training.
(Goblin Killer)
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