Ferran Torres and Ilkay Gundogan laud Barcelona star on social media after their 2-1 win over Las Palmas

Barcelona stars Ferran Torres and Ilkay Gündoğan have lauded Blaugrana skipper Sergi Roberto for his performance during their 2-1 victory over Las Palmas on January 4 (Thursday).

Xavi Hernandez's side visited Gran Canaria Stadium to face Las Palmas in La Liga on Thursday. Munir El Haddadi gave Las Palmas an early lead in the 12th minute with the help of an assist from Sandro Ramírez. Despite several attempts, the visitors failed to find an equalizer in the first half.

La Blaugrana got the much-required breakthrough in the 55th minute as Ferran Torres scored after Robert Lewandowski failed to find a connection on Sergi Roberto’s pass. Former Manchester City skipper Gündoğan sealed the win for Barcelona in the added minutes with a successful penalty attempt (90+3’).

Roberto, who was the skipper of Xavi's side, started the match in the midfield alongside Frenkie de Jong and Gündoğan. The Spaniard provided a crucial assist to Torres in the second half and had a passing accuracy of 80%. Moreover, he had seven touches in the opposition box and also had a 100% success rate in duels.

After the match, Roberto took to Instagram and uploaded a series of pictures from Barcelona's latest victory.

He captioned the post:

“Very important victory to start the year! Now on to the Cup! Let's go Barca!

After the post was uploaded, Roberto’s Barcelona teammates reacted to the pictures. Gündoğan reacted to the post by using fire emojis, while Torres used freezing emojis to comment as he wrote:

“capiiiiii”

Sergi Roberto’s wife Coral Simanovich also reacted to the post.

Comments on Sergi Roberto's Instagram post

Next up, Xavi Hernandez's side will face UD Barbastro in the Round of 32 of the Copa del Rey on January 7 (Sunday).

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Barcelona sporting director Deco rules out the possibility of player exit in ongoing transfer window

Barcelona sporting director Deco has stated that the La Liga giants won't be selling any players in the ongoing January transfer window. The former Portuguese midfielder has claimed that Barcelona have a strong squad and are not keen on letting their players depart. He said (via Barca Blaugranes):

“No player is going to leave. We need to generate fair play to sign, but we are not going to generate it with player departures. We have a great squad."

A couple of weeks ago, it was rumored that former Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso could leave the Camp Nou outfit due to lack of game time. Moreover, Xavi Hernandez's side have also been linked with Girona defensive midfielder Aleix Garcia.

However, Girona are currently second in La Liga, and they're unlikely to sell a crucial player in the January transfer window. Meanwhile, Vitor Roque, another contender for a spot, made his debut for Barcelona against Las Palmas as a substitute, playing 12 minutes.