The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana play their first home game of the season against Valencia at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 21 players for Sunday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 13. Joan García, 25. Wojciech Szczesny, 31. Diego Kochen
Defenders: 4. Ronald Araujo, 5. Pau Cubarsí, 15. Andreas Christensen, 18. Gerard Martín, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 26. Jofre Torrents
Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 16. Fermín López, 17. Marc Casadó, 20. Dani Olmo, 22. Marc Bernal
Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 11. Raphinha, 14. Marcus Rashford, 28. Roony Bardghji, 29. Toni Fernández
There’s some big team news for this one, so let’s get through it. First, the bad: Barça are missing two key starters in Lamine Yamal (groin) and Frenkie de Jong (glute) who picked up injuries during the international break, while Gavi (knee) remains out along with Alejandro Balde (hamstring) and Marc-André ter Stegen (back).
The good news is the return of Marc Bernal, who is named in a matchday squad for the first time in over a year after his recovery from knee surgery, and Roony Bardghji finally gets the clearance to be named in the squad for the first time since being signed from Copenhagen in the summer.
Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Garcia; Kounde, Cubarsí, Christensen, Martín; Casadó, Pedri; Raphinha, Fermín, Rashford; Lewandowski
The match kicks off at 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Monday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.
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