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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Joe Bray

Man City's 21-man squad vs Barcelona shown with four doubts

Manchester City could be without four players for the charity game with Barcelona as they were not present for a visit to sister club Girona on Tuesday.

City flew straight from Newcastle to Girona on Sunday for some warm-weather training ahead of Wednesday's charity match at the Camp Nou, with manager Pep Guardiola watching Girona's La Liga win on Monday night alongside chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and CEO Ferran Soriano.

On Tuesday, Girona shared a video of City's squad and staff joining Girona's squad at their training ground, taking pictures and reuiniting with some familiar faces.

ALSO READ: How Man City should line up vs Barcelona in charity friendly

We looked through the video and identified four talking points, including at least 21 players who are set to be available vs Barcelona:

City's 21-man squad

As the City and Girona squads lined up for a joint photo, there were 21 City players spotted. However, there was no sign of Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake, Jack Grealish or Scott Carson.

Guardiola said Ake wouldn't travel to Spain after limping off vs Newcastle, while Grealish wasn't in the squad due to a knock although some social media pictures suggested he may have been at St James' Park. Walker played the full 90 minutes.

City squad spotted: Ederson, Ortega, Stones, Dias, Cancelo, Mbete, Gomez, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Gundogan, Phillips, Haaland, Alvarez, Mahrez, Foden, Palmer, Bobb, Knight.

Six youngsters involved

Cole Palmer is maybe not a 'youngster' anymore given he will rarely be playing for the academy and has been talked about by Guardiola as a first-team player. Still, he will be looking to use this friendly as a chance to get more minutes than he may usually get. Palmer, along with Luke Mbete, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and Ben Knight were all present in Spain.

The youngsters will be hoping to impress Guardiola if given the chance - especially full-backs Lewis and Wilson-Esbrand, who could be used more in order to ease the workload on Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker.

Familiar faces

As the two squads greeted each other, led by Guardiola, the City boss had big hugs for three familiar faces - two being current City players. He gave full-back Yan Couto a big welcome, and offered a big hug to midfielder Yangel Herrera. There was also a nice moment with former midfielder Aleix Garcia, who left City in 2020 after nine senior appearances - eight under Guardiola.

Erling Haaland also caught up with former Borussia Dortmund teammate Reinier Jesus, who is on loan at Girona from Real Madrid.

Bernardo is all smiles

Bernardo Silva was laughing and joking with players and staff from both teams in the video, and looks set to be involved at Barcelona. There is plenty of transfer interest in him with a week remaining in the window, although CEO Soriano replied to a reporter on Monday when asked if Bernardo was staying at City by saying: "Of course."

This could have been an awkward trip for Bernardo, who admitted recently he doesn't know if he will stay at City beyond next week's transfer deadline, coupled with Barcelona's very public pursuit of him, but he looked to be in a fine mood in the sun in Girona.

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