The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana return from the international break with a massive La Liga game at home against high-flying Athletic Bilbao, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 19 players for Sunday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Iñaki Peña, 26. Ander Astralaga
Defenders: 2. João Cancelo, 3. Alejandro Balde, 4. Ronald Araujo, 5. Iñigo Martínez, 15. Andreas Christensen, 17. Marcos Alonso, 39. Héctor Fort
Midfielders: 6. Gavi, 18. Oriol Romeu, 22. Ilkay Gündogan, 32. Fermín López, 35. Unai Hernández
Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 14. João Félix, 27. Lamine Yamal, 38. Marc Guiu
Xavi continues to deal with a serious injury crisis coming into one of the biggest weeks of the season, and the boss will be without six first team players for this one as Robert Lewandowski (ankle), Frenkie de Jong (ankle), Jules Kounde (knee), Pedri (thigh), Raphinha (hamstring) and Sergi Roberto (calf) all miss out due to injury. That forces the coach to invite some academy youngsters just to make up the numbers on the bench, with midfielder Unai Hernández, right-back Héctor Fort and striker Marc Guiu all getting the call-up.
Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):
Ter Stegen; Cancelo, Christensen, Iñigo, Alonso; Fermín, Romeu, Gavi; Yamal, Ferran, Félix
The match kicks off at 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST (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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