Barcelona defender Gerard Pique bid farewell to the team's Camp Nou stadium with tears when he left the stadium before the end of the match that Blaugrana won 2-0 over Almeria in the 13th round of the Spanish Football League.
Barcelona raised its score to 34, two points ahead of its arch-rivals Real Madrid, who hosted Rayo Vallecano on Monday.
Pique played his 616th match in the colors of Barcelona, and is the fifth most played player in the ranks of the Catalan team, knowing that the record is held by the Argentine star Lionel Messi, the French player of Paris Saint-Germain (778 matches).
With Barcelona, he won all the local titles (League and Cup), continental (Champions League) and international (Club World Cup) and Spain's World Cup and European Cup.
You are a legend @3gerardpique.🥰👏
💙❤ #Sempr3 #LaLigaSantander #BarçaAlmería pic.twitter.com/GMGzYmjP4E
— LaLiga (@LaLigaArab) November 5, 2022
Last Thursday, Pique unexpectedly announced his retirement from football at the age of 35, stressing that Almeria's match would be his last at the Camp Nou.
He participated in front of Almeria in the starting lineup, carrying the captain's armband, in appreciation of his great history with the team, and he left the stadium amid the crowd standing in salute to him in the 84th minute, with tears streaming from his eyes, and he was replaced by Andreas Christensen.
Pique bids farewell to the Camp Nou with tears as a player # La Liga # Barcelona # Pique pic.twitter.com/Ij498DRNp1
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) November 5, 2022
The referee awarded a penalty kick in favor of Barcelona after a handball by Brazilian defender Kaiki inside the area, and the Polish Robert Lewandowski kicked it, but he shot it with the post (7).
And Lewandowski missed his team's last match against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League (4-2) after Barcelona coach Xavi preferred to rest him for playing several consecutive matches.
Perhaps Pique was afraid of losing it on his farewell night 👋, so Lewandowski wasted it ❌# La Liga # Pique # Barcelona pic.twitter.com/fngTgqgKhh
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) November 5, 2022
Barcelona control
Barcelona imposed absolute control over the course of the game through possession of the ball with a large percentage of 78 percent.
But despite that, the Belgian Largy Ramezani was singled out by German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who countered his attempt brilliantly (28).
⛔🕸 Spider @mterstegen1!
#BarçaAlmería#LaLigaSantander#LaLigaHighlights pic.twitter.com/Hm4hArtbQs
— LaLiga (@LaLigaArab) November 5, 2022
At the beginning of the second half, Barcelona managed to open the scoring when French winger Ousmane Dembele received a long forward ball from Sergio Busquets, evading defenders before he hit it crawling with his left to settle into the net (48).
Dembele manipulates the Almeria defense and scores a ground goal in the corner of the goal # La Liga # Lewandowski pic.twitter.com/VsDJzVmRd1
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) November 5, 2022
Barcelona added the second goal when Jordi Alba passed towards substitute Ansu Fati, who replaced Ferran Torres, so he fired a strong shot at goalkeeper Fernando Martins without picking it up, to be followed by Dutchman Frank de Jong, who is lurking in the net (62).