Nonetheless, this was a complete display from Barcelona after a hard week for the city, with tributes to the victims of the Las Ramblas terror attack victims made before kick off.

With the 2017/18 La Liga season set to begin, Mark Donaldson and Paul Mariner give their first week picks.

The City of Barcelona and the State of Catalonia has been in a state of shock from yesterday after some terrorists attacked the innocent people in the city center of Las Rambles.

FC Barcelona open their season at home facing Real Betis in the Camp Nou on Sunday evening and the game will be played under strict security measures, while the club has announced that flags will fly at half-mast and the players will wear black armbands in memory of the victims.

However, Barcelona have confirmed that the Belgium worldwide was back in training on Friday morning as Ernesto Valverde's players continued the preparation for the first La Liga encounter of the new season against Betis.

Le Camp Nou se recueille pour les victimes des attentats — Espagne
De l'émotion, il y en aura forcément, ce dimanche soir au stade du Camp Nou où le FC Barcelone recevra le Betis . A l'arrière du maillot, le nom du joueur sera remplacé par 'Barcelona'.

"We have to stand up to these circumstances and the best way is by moving forward". We are all potential victims, in the metro, in football.

"But it is something you can't control and we can't hide".

"These are extraordinary and lamentable circumstances". "It's an extraordinary and very bad situation and we show our absolute solidarity with the victims of the two attacks", Valverde said. "These things put all the small problems we face in our lives everyday into perspective". "We are with the people that suffered".

Just over 50 miles northeast of Barcelona, concrete road blocks were mounted outside Girona's Estadi Montilivi as their first ever La Liga match against Atletico Madrid passed off safely in front of a near capacity 13,500 crowd. They have also been left without Luis Suarez for a month after the Uruguayan hurt his knee in Wednesday's 2-0 Spanish Super Cup defeat by Real Madrid.

Barcelona have been frustrated in their attempts to sign Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho and Borussia Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele and Valverde implied dissatisfaction with the club's dealings. The available first team players were joined by new FC Barcelona player Paulinho in his first session as a blaugrana.