Spain without a Barcelona player for first time in two years
Luis Enrique, a former Barca coach, did not start against Wales with any FCB players
Luis Enrique’s Spain side to face Wales in Thursday’s friendly sees no Barcelona players selected.
It had been two years and 103 days since Spain lined up to play a game without a single Barcelona player in the starting line up.
Last time that was the case was a friendly against South Korea ahead of Euro 2016, on June 1, with Vicente del Bosque in charge.
Two days earlier they had done the same in another preparatory match against Bosnia.
Then the coach decided not to call up Barca or Sevilla players because they had played the Copa del Rey final a few days earlier and he wanted to rest them.
To find an official game without a Barca player you have to go back to 12 October 2015, almost three years ago.
Spain played in a dead rubber qualifier for Euro 2016 against Ukraine, having already sealed their progress to the tournament.
Del Bosque rested Bartra, Pique, Alba and Busquets, although the latter two came on for a short amount of time.
