Barcelona’s Spanish players to return to club on December 16 after World Cup exit | OneFootball

One of the biggest upsets of the FIFA World Cup 2022 materialied earlier today as Spain were knocked out of the tournament by darkhorses Morocco via a penalty shootout.

La Roja put in a disappointing display and were absolutely terrible in the penalty shootout, failing to convert even one of their three attempts, as they bowed out of the tournament at the Round of 16 stage.

The early elimination was not at all expected given that Spain boasted one of the most talented squads at the World Cup. But with them now crashing out, Barcelona will recover more of their players earlier than anticipated.

As many as eight Barça players were on the Spain roster at the World Cup, with Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Ferran Torres, Eric Garcia, Pedri, Ansu Fati, Alejandro Balde and Gavi having been called up by manager Luis Enrique.

With Spain now being eliminated, Mundo Deportivo is reporting that the Barcelona contingent will return to the club on December 16 to start training for the resumption of club football in the last week of the month.

Of the eight players that were with the Spanish national team, only Eric Garcia did not play any minutes while Ansu Fati’s involvement was very limited as well.

The report states that the players will return to Barcelona tomorrow itself, but Xavi has already confirmed that they will be given an extended vacation to recharge their batteries before resuming training with their club teammates.

So, all the eight Barcelona stars who faced elimination with Spain today will be rejoining their teammates at the Ciutat Esportiva complex from December 16.

Meanwhile Andreas Christensen and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who were eliminated from the group stages itself, will return to training on December 12 while Robert Lewandowski will join the squad two days later on December 14.

At the moment, Barcelona have five players still active at the World Cup in the form of Dutch duo Memphis Depay and Frenkie de Jong, France’s Ousmane Dembele and Jules Kounde, along with Raphinha of Brazil.