Barcelona had a strong start to their new European journey thanks to a 2-0 win away to Newcastle in their Champions League opener, but now their focus must turn back to La Liga as the Catalans welcome Getafe to the Johan Cruyff Stadium.
The Blaugrana returned to winning ways in the league last weekend with a destruction of Valencia, and will look for a second straight win against an extremely annoying and frustrating Getafe side who are off to an excellent start this season with three wins in four
games and always give Barça the biggest of headaches, home or away.
Here’s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Sunday’s battle.
Defense
Barça don’t have much time to rest after Newcastle and will be right back in action on Thursday against newly-promoted Real Oviedo away from home, but we likely won’t be seeing much rotation from Flick in this one given the importance of a win and the opponent they’ll be facing.
But there could still be a couple of changes, and we expect at least one at the back given Pau Cubarsí’s slight knee issue on Thursday that is not considered serious but still warrants caution and a likely rest on Sunday. We think Andreas Christensen starts this one alongside Ronald Araujo, with Jules Kounde and Gerard Martín retaining their full-back spots.
Midfield
Barça won the all-important midfield battle against Newcastle thanks in large part to the quiet dominance of Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, who did a brilliant job of dealing with the Newcastle press and completely dominated the ball at the end of the game to run out the clock and avoid a late comeback from the home team.
We think those two will start in the double pivot again, though it is possible Marc Casadó takes De Jong’s spot since Frenkie was coming off an injury and played all 90 minutes on Thursday. Fermín López will likely keep his spot as a number 10, but Dani Olmo has a chance to start if Flick wants to freshen things up.
Attack
Marcus Rashford is the talk of many towns in Spain and England after his star cameo against Newcastle, and there’s zero reason to expect the Englishman not to be in the starting XI in this one to continue building up his confidence and continuity within the system.
Lamine Yamal is expected to miss out once again as he recovers from a groin problem, so Raphinha will keep his place on the right wing. Robert Lewandowski started his first game of the season against Newcastle and there’s not much recovery time head of this one, so we think the Pole will go back to the bench and Ferran Torres will start up top.
Possible XI: Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Christensen, Martín; De Jong, Pedri; Raphinha, Fermín, Rashford; Ferran (4-2-3-1)
How do you think Barcelona should line up against Getafe? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!
