How the FC Barcelona players performed at Euro 2016

Euro 2016 comes to an end on Sunday when Portugal and France play for the title in Paris. After Ter Stegen’s Germany exited the competition in the semi-finals, Barça’s representation came to an end. Piqué, Busquets, Alba, Iniesta, Rakitic, Turan, Vermaelen and Ter Stegen were all playing for their countries in France, but sadly none of them will be bringing home a winner’s medal. Here we take a look back at how they and their teams performed at the summer’s showpiece event:

GERARD PIQUÉ

One of the lynchpins of the Spain defence, the centre back was one of the team’s most solid and in-form players and Vivente del Bosque started him in every match. He played a total of 360 minutes and scored the winner in the opening game against the Czech Republic. Piqué made 231 passes and received the same number of fouls that he made, just two.

Spain looked especially impressive in their 3-0 rout of Turkey, but defeat to Croatia condemned them to a difficult second round game against Italy, and that was when their bid to win the title for the third time in succession came to an end.

JORDI ALBA

The full-back was another central piece in Vicente del Bosque’s game plan. Like Piqué, he started every game for a total of 351 minutes, with a solid 93% of his 256 passes finding their target. He suffered three fouls and only committed two of his own, for one of which he was yellow carded.

SERGIO BUSQUETS

The midfield general started every Spain game too, and was one of the finest players in the side. Sergio posted an even better pass arte than Alba, with 94% of his 298 attempts being completed. He was on the receiving end of seven fouls and made three of his own, and saw yellow for one of those.

ANDRÉS INIESTA

Outstanding in every game, Iniesta was widely hailed as one of the finest players in the group stage, and was made man of the match of the first two fixtures against the Czechs and Turks. He made more passes than any other player in his team (327).

IVAN RAKITIC

The Croatian was one of the standout players in a team that was widely tipped to do well, but eventually fell to Portugal in the second round. Rakitic played 380 minutes in France and scored an absolute cracker to make it 2-0 against the Czech Republic, a game that would end 2-2. Rakitic completed 82% of his 109 passes and was the Croat that received the second highest number of fouls.

ARDA TURAN

Turkey faced an agonising wait after finishing the group stage with three points, but Northern Ireland ended up edging ahead of them in the battle for one of the second rounds berths for third-place finishers. Turan captained his side for 245 of a possible 270 minutes and made 88% of his 113 passes. He received five fouls and committed just one of his own.

THOMAS VERMAELEN

Manager Marc Wilmots used the Barça defender for every minute of Belgium’s first four games, including the impressive 4-0 defeat of Hungary in the round of 16. After 94% of his 139 passes had found their target, Vermaelen was sorely missed in the quarter finals, when he was suspended and Belgium crashed out of the tournament following a 3-1 defeat to Wales.

MARC-ANDRÉ TER STEGEN

The Barça keeper was at the Euros for the first time, but spent the whole time on the bench, with Manuel Neuer being Joaquim Low’s first choice stopper in every game. The world champions made it as far as the semi-finals, where they were beaten 2-0 by the host nation.