Welcome to Football Espana’s live coverage of Barcelona’s Club World Cup semi-final against Asian Champions League holders Guangzhou Evergrande.
Barca and Guangzhou are playing off for the right to meet River Plate in Sunday’s final after the Argentines eliminated Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Wednesday.
The Catalans are without both Lionel Messi and Neymar, the former falling ill and joining the latter on the sidelines, Neymar having suffered a groin injury in training a week ago.
It’s hoped Neymar will be ready Sunday’s final should Barca qualify, but the extent of Messi’s illness, understood to be renal colic, abdominal pain often caused by kidney stones, isn’t fully known.
Full team news can be found here.
Guangzhou, coached by World Cup winner Felipe Scolari, on Sunday beat Mexico’s Club America to reach the last four.
