Barcelona eased to a 2-0 win against Almeria in Gerard Pique’s final game at Camp Nou before retirement.
Goals from Ousmane Dembele and Frenkie de Jong made up for an early missed penalty from Robert Lewandowski, but it was always going to be Pique’s occasion.
The 35-year-old centre-back played 82 minutes before being substituted, leaving the field to a standing ovation from every one of the 92,605 in attendance on Saturday as he tearfully hugged each of his team-mates.
Barca’s win was their 11th in their last 12 league games and sent them back to the top of LaLiga before Real Madrid’s trip to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
A VAR check saw Barca rewarded a sixth-minute penalty when Ferran Torres’ header hit Kaiky Fernandes’ arm but Lewandowski saw his spot-kick clip the outside of the left post after a stuttered run-up.
Despite Barca’s dominance, a sloppy pass from De Jong was pounced on by Largie Ramazani and Marc-Andre ter Stegen reacted quickly to close down his shot.
It took less than three minutes of the second half for the hosts to find the opener as a long ball out to the right from Sergio Busquets found Dembele, who cut inside onto his left foot and beat two defenders before calmly rolling his shot into the far corner of the net.
Their lead was doubled just after the hour as a cross from the left by Jordi Alba found Ansu Fati, whose shot was saved well by Fernando Martinez before De Jong lashed home the rebound to seal the win as the Camp Nou bid farewell to Pique with a victory.
