A week spent in the sunshine seems the perfect way to recover and recharge from a draining weekend encounter, right?
That's exactly what Manchester City are doing - well, sort of. Pep Guardiola and his squad flew straight to Catalonia after their thrilling 3-3 draw with Newcastle on Sunday, where they will hold a training camp before facing Barcelona in a friendly on Wednesday evening.
For the sake of player fitness the charity match will hopefully not be an overly intense one, especially now that City only have two fit senior centre-backs following the injury picked up by Nathan Ake. However, neither will it be a walk in the park; taking on Barcelona at the Camp Nou demands a certain level of competitiveness.
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With games coming every three days starting this weekend, Guardiola will likely rest some of his big hitters. Taking their place will be those who have featured less often so far this season, but they will be keen to prove a point to the boss.
Bernardo Silva
After five spectacular years at City it seems ridiculous to suggest that Bernardo Silva has anything to prove, but a summer of uncertainty has perhaps changed things slightly.
There is concrete mutual interest between Bernardo and Barcelona, but the Portuguese midfielder is now extremely unlikely to leave the Etihad Stadium this summer. Still, him running out at the stadium of a team he'd quite like to play for will add a little spice to the occassion.
That and tactical reasons resulted in Guardiola benching Bernardo in City's opening two league games, although he did start against Newcastle. A strong showing against Barca will reassure supporters of his commitment to the Blues and Guardiola that he deserves to start most games.
Kalvin Phillips
Kalvin Phillips was always going to play second fiddle to Rodri as City's holding midfielder, but he would have hoped to have featured for more than one minute in City's opening three league games.
The £42m summer signing was a late substitute in the opening day win at West Ham, sat out the Bournemouth game with injury and was and remained on the bench on Sunday. He will likely start in Spain to give Rodri a rest and will be keen to show what he can do.
Rico Lewis
At just 17 years old Rico Lewis should be in no rush to become a regular member of City's senior squad, but he has impressed Pep Guardiola enough to be named in three consecutive matchday squads. The right-back even made his Premier League debut as a late substitute against Bournemouth.
With Allan Saint-Maximin likely still popping up in Kyle Walker's nightmares, Wednesday might be a good opportunity for Lewis to get more senior minutes under his belt.
Sergio Gomez
Sergio Gomez only arrived from Anderlecht last week and trained with his new teammates once, but that didn't stop him making the substitutes' bench at St James' Park.
The Spanish left-back will act at understudy to Joao Cancelo this term, but any opportunity to get him up to speed with his new teammates and Guardiola's system should be taken. A meaningless friendly is the perfect chance to do so.
Stefan Ortega
Like Gomez, Stefan Ortega joined City this summer knowing he will not be a starter. As back-up goalkeeper he knows he will likely play in the domestic cups, and there seems no reason why he shouldn't take Ederson's place against Barca.
It will be interesting to see the German's famed distribution and shot-stopping in a City shirt for the first time, and whether he could end up providing real competition for Ederson's starting place.
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