Bernardo Silva and four other Man City players looking to send a message in Barcelona friendly

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