A game against Almeria initially appeared to be a low-key occasion for Barcelona to say farewell to one of its finest players – but then 92,605 turned up to Gerard Pique’s party.
The Camp Nou was filled to the brim with Barca fans for Saturday night’s LaLiga match, which came just two days after Pique announced his decision to retire from football. The man who had played over 600 games and won 30 trophies, including eight La Liga titles, three Champions League trophies and seven Copa del Rey titles, was bowing out. That is an occasion supporters could not miss.
And ultimately they got what they wanted: a comfortable Barcelona win and an occasion befitting a modern great of the game.
The crowd turned up to celebrate Pique and they got their chance right from the off. Barcelona’s players appeared out of the tunnel wearing No3 shirts with Pique’s name on the back and received a hearty ovation from the packed stadium.
This was Pique’s 615th game for Barca – and, thankfully, it was one of his easiest. Almeria came to sit back in their 5-3-2 shape and try to frustrate their opponents. They just about managed it in the first half, but were eventually blown away in the second.
It took just a few minutes for Barcelona to be presented with the perfect opportunity to cap Pique’s final game with his 54th goal for the club. Ferran Torres’ back-post header struck a hand and, after a look at the pitchside monitor, the referee pointed to the spot. But instead of the night’s hero, up stepped Robert Lewandowski, on a quest for his 14th LaLiga goal of the season.
Remarkably, the Polish striker put his shot wide of the post after a stuttering run-up. It was his first miss from 12 yards since December 2021 against Benfica and it killed the warm vibe around the stadium.
Barcelona pushed hard for an opener but it wouldn’t come. Pique put a header over the crossbar, Torres had a shot cleared off the line and Ousmane Dembele sent a diving header straight at the goalkeeper.
Almeria could – and perhaps should – have ruined the party, too, after a mistake from Frenkie de Jong. Lulled into a false sense of security by Almeria’s lack of threat, the Dutchman gave the ball away with a square pass but Largie Ramazani was thwarted by Marc-Andre Ter Stegen one-on-one.
Pique’s party got started straight after the break when Dembele was allowed to run into the box and pick out the bottom corner with his left foot. And any worries about the result were put to bed when De Jong smashed in a rebound when Ansu Fati’s shot was saved.
In the 83rd minute the moment came.
The whistle blew. Pique pulled off the captain’s armband. Tears filled his eyes. He hugged each and every one of his teammates and began the slow walk off the pitch as applause came from all four stands of the Camp Nou. Andreas Christensen took his place as he entered the dugout for the final time as a player.
After passing Xavi Hernandez, his former teammate and current manager, he reached another line of people to greet. There were hugs for all the coaching staff, the substitutes and everyone else wearing a Barcelona emblem. It was emotional, but there was also the sense that this was also just the beginning of Pique’s next chapter.
As he put it in his retirement statement: “And you know me, sooner or later, I'll be back. See you at the Camp Nou. Visca el Barca, always."
