The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana begin a new Champions League journey with their first League Phase game of the season against Newcastle at St. James’ Park, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 22 players for Thursday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 13. Joan Garcia, 25. Wojciech Szczesny, 31. Diego Kochen
Defenders: 4. Ronald Araujo, 5. Pau Cubarsí, 15. Andreas Christensen, 18. Gerard Martín, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 26. Jofre Torrents
Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 16. Fermín, 17. Marc Casadó, 20. Dani Olmo, 21. Frenkie de Jong, 22. Marc Bernal
Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 11. Raphinha, 14. Marcus Rashford, 28. Roony Bardghji, 29. Toni Fernández
There are some pretty good news for Barça as Frenkie de Jong is back for the European opener after missing the weekend match against Valencia with a glute issue, but there are still some key pieces missing: Lamine Yamal (groin) and Gavi (knee) remain out, joining Alejandro Balde (hamstring) and Marc-André ter Stegen (knee) on the injury list.
Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Garcia; Kounde, Cubarsí, Christensen, Martín; De Jong, Pedri; Raphinha, Fermín, Rashford; Lewandowski
The match kicks off at 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Friday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.