Barcelona leads on Pique's farewell night
The Barcelona fans, who gathered in the stands of the "Spotify Camp Nou" stadium, bid farewell to his legend and defender Gerard Pique, who decided to retire, in the best possible way by beating his guest Almeria 2-0 and temporarily topping the Spanish league standings in the thirteenth stage yesterday.
Barcelona raised its score to 34, two points ahead of its arch-rivals Real Madrid, who hosted Rayo Vallecano.
And Pique surprised everyone by announcing his retirement from playing for good, through a video he posted on his social networking sites, stressing that "Saturday's match (against Almeria in the league) will be my last at the Camp Nou."
"Football gave me everything, Barcelona gave me everything, and you Catalans gave me everything. Now that this boy's dreams have come true, I want to tell you that it's time to put an end to this journey." .
Pique announced his retirement after the team failed to reach the Champions League playoffs for the second year in a row, in light of the administration's efforts towards a new era.
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).
Pique carried the captain's armband in his farewell match in appreciation of his services and entered the stadium amid a wonderful reception from the Blaugrana fans.
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.
Returning to the course of the match, 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 took it, but he shot it with the post (7).
At the beginning of the second half, Barcelona succeeded in opening 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 land in the net (48).
Barcelona added the second goal when Jordi Alba passed towards substitute Anso Fati, who replaced Ferran Torres, and he fired a powerful shot that was blocked by goalkeeper Fernando Martins without picking up, to be followed by Dutchman Frank de Jong, who was lurking in the net (62).
And Pique came out amid the crowd standing in salute to him in the 84th minute after he slandered his colleagues and tears streamed from his eyes and was replaced by the Danish Andreas Christensen.
In another match, Osasuna climbed to fifth place temporarily by defeating Celta Vigo 2-1 thanks to a double by Chimi Avia, confirming their strong start this season. On the other hand, Celta played their first match under the leadership of their new coach, Carlos Carvalal.
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