FC Barcelona announce squad for Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Napoli
The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana are in Naples, Italy for the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie against Napoli, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 23 players for Wednesday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Iñaki Peña, 26. Ander Astralaga
Defenders: 2. João Cancelo, 4. Ronald Araujo, 5. Iñigo Martínez, 15. Andreas Christensen, 23. Jules Kounde, 33. Pau Cubarsí, 39. Héctor Fort
Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 18. Oriol Romeu, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Frenkie de Jong, 22. Ilkay Gündogan, 30. Marc Casadó, 32. Fermín López
Forwards: 9. Robert Lewandowski, 11. Raphinha, 14. João Félix, 19. Vitor Roque, 27. Lamine Yamal, 38. Marc Guiu
The big surprise of this one is the return of João Félix, who managed to pass a fitness test and has made the trip to Naples after recovering from an ankle injury to add much-needed depth in attack. Captain Sergi Roberto is also back after a couple of weeks out with an Achilles problem, which means only four players are missing as Ferran Torres (hamstring), Marcos Alonso (back), Alejandro Balde (hamstring) and Gavi (knee) are ruled out due to injury.
Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Iñigo, Cancelo; Christensen, De Jong; Yamal, Gündogan, Pedri; Lewandowski
The match kicks off at 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Thursday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.
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