Most of the day, people have been talking about Ousmane Dembele and how he might leave Barcelona in the summer. This has made it hard to remember that Barcelona has a big game tonight. As a group, they’ve been in Bilbao for the Copa del Rey round of 16.
When Xavi picks his team for tonight’s game against Marcelino’s team, they’ll play like they did last year in the final. When Barcelona plays in cup competitions, their second-choice goalkeeper usually starts. Neto has been replaced by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, probably because this game is so important for the team.
In defence, Gerard Pique and Ronald Araujo stay in the middle of the back four. In front of them, they will have Dani Alves on the right and Jordi Alba on the left. A fun fact: three of these four played in the final of the Champions League in 2015.
Frenkie de Jong has been benched for a number of reasons, including his bad form and an injury. Pedri and Gavi are in charge of the central midfield. They all come from Spain, and Sergio Busquets is the last one.
The attacking front three is made up of Ferran Torres on the right and Ez Abde on the left. There are no chances for Luuk de Jong and Ansu Fati to play in this game. Ferran Jutgla is the main player to watch out for.
