Ash cloud means its buses for Barcelona, Lyon

Reigning champions Barcelona will travel by coach to Italy on Sunday for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Inter Milan due to air travel restrictions.

A volcano eruption in Iceland is continuing to play havoc with travel plans for many international events and Barcelona had to make alternative arrangements following the close of the city’s airport.

The club announced that its squad will leave Spain on Sunday and have an overnight stopover in the French resort of Cannes before leaving Monday morning to complete the 1000km trip to the northern Italian city.

The competition’s other semi-finalists are Lyon and Bayern Munich, who play on Wednesday, and the French club admitted Sunday they had no choice but to adopt similar measures.

Although they will wait till the last minute in the hope Lyon airport will re-open, Lyon are set to leave for Munich on Monday by bus.

“We don’t have the choice. There’s not much we can do about the ash cloud,” said team captain Cris.

“We have to travel by bus but we won’t be the only team to do so.”