Barcelona are done with the celebrations after winning the Spanish Super Cup at the weekend and are looking to continue on the path for another trophy as they face a tricky Copa del Rey Round of 16 tie away to Racing Santander at El Sardinero.
The Blaugrana will be looking for safe passage to the quarter-finals of the Cup but have a tough challenge in the form of the Second Division’s top team, who knocked out Villarreal in the previous round and have enough talent to cause a major upset against the reigning
Cup winners.
Here’s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Thursday’s battle:
Defense
Flick’s team selection for this one is quite complicated: on the one hand, Racing are a good team who deserve respect, but Barça have two monster away games coming up against Real Sociedad in La Liga and Slavia Prague in the Champions League, so the coach will have no choice but to rotate his side and rest his biggest stars for at least the first 45-60 minutes of this Cup tie.
We think Hansi will rest his two starting full-backs for this one and play the ultra-versatile Eric Garcia in place of Jules Kounde at right-back, and because Jofre Torrents is not available due to international commitments with the Spain under-19s, we’ll likely see Gerard Martin replacing Alejandro Balde at left-back. João Cancelo is officially a Barça player again and might make the squad, but he’s unlikely to start or feature at all since he hasn’t trained with the group yet.
Pau Cubarsí is pretty much a lock to start at center-back since no one else is available, and we think we’ll see the return of Ronald Araujo to the starting lineup in a lower pressure environment after he came on for the final 10 minutes of the Super Cup Final at the weekend.
There’s also a doubt in goal between Marc-André ter Stegen and Wojciech Szczesny, but we think Flick will stick with MATS as Joan Garcia’s backup to continue giving the German some minutes ahead of his possible exit in this winter window.
Midfield
Frenkie de Jong is suspended for this one due to his red card at the weekend and Pedri should not be risked from the start given the two huge games coming up, so we think Flick will go with Marc Casadó and Marc Bernal as the double pivot and Dani Olmo will start in the number 10 spot to give the midfield a creative spark against what should be a defensive-minded approach from Racing.
Attack
Please, Hansi Flick, we beg you: REST LAMINE YAMAL. We are definitely speaking this into existence this time and we think Roony Bardghji will start on the right wing, with Marcus Rashford on the left and Ferran Torres up top. Yamal, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski will be required to be at their best in the next two games, so they should get at least 45 minutes off in this one.
Possible XI: Ter Stegen; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsí, Martín; Casadó, Bernal; Roony, Olmo, Rashford; Ferran (4-2-3-1)
How do you think Barcelona should line up against Racing Santander? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!
