Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique had been suffering from a knee ligament problem since the match against Espanyol. Despite this, he threw caution into the wind and played against Valencia in the Copa del Rey semi-final. He lasted 82 minutes before he was substituted for Yerry Mina on his Barcelona debut. Pique got the job done perfectly and was excellent at the back. He cleared up various attacks, throwing himself around and scaring Barcelona fans.

But once he taken off, Pique really began to feel the pinch, in other words, the pain in his right knee. There is a likelihood that he will be out on Sunday against Getafe at Camp Nou. Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde will be desperate as Samuel Umtiti is suspended. Valverde substituted Pique off because “he felt a strain coming on.”

Pique was doubtful for Thursday’s game but played anyway. But as mentioned earlier, he was subbed off with Yerry Mina making his Barca debut. Meanwhile, the Catalans reached yet another Copa del Rey Final.

The Barcelona coach said, “Barca are used to reaching Finals and playing in them, me not so much. I’m very happy, given it’ll be the fifth consecutive Final for these players, something that’s very difficult to repeat and repeat. We thought it’d be very difficult and it was, but we’re going home with tickets to the Final in our pockets. We thought they’d give us the ball and they did. They wanted to win the ball back from us and hit us on the break.

Valverde continued, “We were able to find players in space and take advantage. We tried it with Messi, Iniesta, etc… We had to try and it went well. We won so we’d reach the Final. We found it difficult against Celta and Espanyol and now we have against Valencia. We had a busy January. Pique? He felt a strain coming on and we decided that the best thing was to take him off.”