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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Guardian sport

Barcelona invite three young pitch invaders to join in famous rondo

Lionel Messi puts pen to paper for Barça’s young admirers.
Lionel Messi puts pen to paper for Barça’s young admirers. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

If Barcelona were worried about facing Arsenal in their last-16 Champions League second leg they made a good job of hiding it.

The players took to the training ground on Tuesday in preparation for the game largely for the benefit of the cameras and were greatly amused when three pitch invaders joined them at short notice.

Barcelona deal with the pitch invaders.

Rather than being thrown out without further ado, the three boys were welcomed like long-lost team-mates and allowed to join in the famous Barça rondo which largely involves running around fruitlessly trying to intercept the world’s best passers of a ball.

Having had their pictures taken with Luis Suárez and the rest, the youngsters left the players to get on with plotting how to build on their 2-0 lead against the fading Gunners.

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