Croatia Star Ivan Rakitic Reveals His Wife Saved Him From Barcelona Terror Atrocity

Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic has revealed he almost got caught up in last month's terror attack in Las Ramblas, but was saved by his wife Raquel Mauri.

The world was left saddened once more as a van was driven into pedestrians in Catalonia and 13 people were killed.

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The incident prompted Barca to honour the victims three days later at their La Liga opener against Real Betis with one-off shirts that included '#TotsSomBarcelona' in place of the usual player names.

Former Sevilla star Rakitic has revealed to Goal that he was fortunate not to have been present during the time of the attack - the family were due to take a trip to the scene of the atrocity but for a last-minute change of plan and trip to the park as proposed by Raquel.

He said: "During recent terrorist attack in Barcelona I was very close. I went downtown with my family and we prepared to go to that place the attack happened. I wanted to go there but my wife said it was a nice day and to let the kids play in the park outside our house. Thank God I listened to her.

"We were three or four minutes away from going there. And as soon as people heard of the attack, many friends and family started to call me to check how we were."