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Barcelona to play friendly game against Al-Ahli in Qatar

Barcelona will play a friendly match in Qatar against Al-Ahli on Dec. 13.

The fixture, which will be sandwiched between La Liga games against Osasuna, on Dec. 11 and Espanyol on Dec. 16, is part of the agreement the Catalan club signed with their principle sponsor Qatar Airways.

Doha's Thani bin Jassim Stadium will host the match, which had been scheduled to take place earlier this year.

However, the original May 24 date was scrapped as the final of the L'Emir Cup and different games in the local league were scheduled for the same day.

There were also reports in Catalan newspaper Sport, though, that several Barca players were not keen to play the game ahead of their summer commitments with their national teams.

Al-Ahli won the Saudi Professional League last season and are managed by former Tottenham Hotspur, Basel and Stuttgart coach Christian Gross.

Their squad is largely made up of local players, with Greece international Giannis Fetfatzidis and Brazilian Luiz Carlos two of the four non-Saudi players.

Barca start December by hosting Real Madrid and Borussia Monchengladbach, before making the trip to Pamplona to face Osasuna in La Liga.

They will then travel to Doha, before returning for the Catalan derby against Espanyol and the second leg of their Copa del Rey tie against Hercules, with both those games due to take place at the Camp Nou.