The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana kick off a new season with a trip to Elche for the first La Liga game of the campaign, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 23 players for Sunday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: Joan Garcia, Wojciech Szczesny, Eder Aller
Defenders: João Cancelo, Pau Cubarsí, Andreas Christensen, Gerard Martín, Jules Kounde, Eric Garcia, Álvaro Cortés, Jordi Pesquer
Midfielders: Gavi, Fermín López, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Marc Bernal, Brian Fariñas, Xavi Espart
Forwards: Lamine
Yamal, Raphinha, Karim Adeyemi, Anthony Gordon, Hamza Abdelkarim
The big news for this one is the absence of Alejandro Balde, who is left off the squad as his exit from the club appears more and more likely. Marc Casadó and Héctor Fort are also on their way out and don’t make the trip, and Frenkie de Jong (knee) and Roony Bardghji (knee) miss out through injury. New signing Rodri won’t join group training until Monday, so he is also out for this one.
Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):
Joan; Eric, Christensen, Martín, Cancelo; Fermín, Bernal, Espart; Yamal, Hamza, Raphinha
The match kicks off at 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Monday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.
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