FC Barcelona announce squad for La Liga match against Athletic Bilbao
The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana play their first home game of the new La Liga season against historic rivals Athletic Bilbao, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 23 players for Saturday’s clash:
Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Iñaki Peña, 26. Ander Astralaga
Defenders: 2. Pau Cubarsí, 3. Alejandro Balde, 5. Iñigo Martínez, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 29. Álex Valle, 32. Héctor Fort, 35. Gerard Martín, 36. Sergi Domínguez
Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 14. Pablo Torre, 16. Fermín López, 17. Marc Casadó, 20. Dani Olmo, 28. Marc Bernal
Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 11. Raphinha, 18. Pau Víctor, 19. Lamine Yamal
The big news is the possible debut of Dani Olmo, who makes the squad and is ready to play for the first time as a Blaugrana senior player if his registration goes through in time. Fermín López also gets his first call-up of the season after missing out last week, but that’s where the good news end: Andreas Christensen misses out with what the club calls a tendinopathy in his left Achilles, the same injury he has dealt with since the start of last season, but the Dane is expected to miss at least two months of action this time and joins Ronald Araujo (hamstring), Gavi (knee) and Frenkie de Jong (ankle) on the injured list.
Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; Bernal, Casadó; Yamal, Pedri, Raphinha; Lewandowski
The match kicks off at 7pm CET (Barcelona), 6pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 1pm ET, 10am PT (USA), 10.30pm IST (India), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.
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