Gerard Pique has recently criticized La Liga for Barcelona’s schedule. Following up a crushing defeat to Bayern Munich with draws in the La Liga football match against Granada and Cadiz, Barcelona has had a difficult week. In those games, the Blaugrana have struggled but the scheduling hasn’t helped according to Pique.
Last week on Tuesday Barcelona faced Bayern Munich for their Champions League kick-off match and were thrashed badly by the Bundesliga giants. Until Monday they had to wait to play their next game which was against Granada at Camp Nou this week.
On Thursday night as part of the midweek round of fixtures Ronald Koeman’s men then played Cadiz, and Pique believes this may have put them at a disadvantage. According to La Razon, he said after the game to Movistar+: “What I don’t understand is how they put is in a schedule like this. They put us to play on Monday, this is what I don’t understand.”
“I don’t know who does the schedule. How can it be like this? Why, after playing on Tuesday against Bayern have they put us on Monday? What happened with the referee (De Jong red card) can happen, you can be wrong. But this? It’s not a criticism, it’s a reflection. I don’t understand it.”
Barcelona’s schedule was different, but they aren’t necessarily at a disadvantage. Other European teams have less time between their Champions League or Europa League match and their first game back in La Liga.
After that, all teams were given approximately 72 hours of rest before their mid-week match, and the same break is being applied before this weekend’s matches. Barcelona was not put at a disadvantage while their fixture schedule was different in terms of days and they were even given an extended period of rest following their Champions League match against Bayern.
