The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana play their second straight La Liga game back at the Spotify Camp Nou against Deportivo Alavés, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 22 players for Saturday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 13. Joan Garcia, 25. Wojciech Szczesny, 33. Eder Aller
Defenders: 3. Alejandro Balde, 5. Pau Cubarsí, 15. Andreas Christensen, 18. Gerard Martín, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric Garcia, 26. Jofre Torrents
Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 17. Marc Casadó, 20. Dani Olmo, 22. Marc Bernal, 27. Dro Fernández, 43. Tommy Marqués
Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 10. Lamine Yamal, 11. Raphinha, 14. Marcus Rashford, 28. Roony Bardghji
The big news for this one is the return of Pedri, who comes back to the matchday squad after missing a month with a hamstring injury, but the good news stops there: Frenkie de Jong is a last-second absentee due to personal reasons, according to reports, Fermín López is ruled out for a couple of weeks with a calf issue and Ronald Araujo also misses out due to a stomatch virus, and they join Marc-André ter Stegen (back) and Gavi (knee) on the list of absentees for this one. The lack of numbers in midfield means a first call-up for promising La Masia midfielder Tommy Marqués, who has been training for several weeks with the first team and gets his first chance today.
Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Joan; Eric, Cubarsí, Martín, Balde; Casadó, Bernal; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
The match kicks off at 4.15pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3.15pm GMT (UK), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 8.45pm IST (India), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.
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