“It is much more than a game. It is a cry for solidarity and a tribute to the more than 400 Palestinian athletes murdered in Gaza. Let’s fill the stadium.”

That was the call made by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to his fellow Catalans, published last week in a video by Act x Palestine, the organisation promoting Tuesday night’s friendly fixture at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium between the national teams of Catalonia and Palestine.

By the weekend 23,000 tickets had been sold, though for the visiting Palestine team, it will take something very special to surpass their experience on Saturday night when in front of 51,396 spectators at Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames stadium, they played their first-ever match in Europe against the Basque Country national team.

For Palestine head coac

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