FC Barcelona Injured Stars Expected To Return For UCL Quarter-Finals.
FC Barcelona should be able to count on the talents of Pedri and Frenkie de Jong for the Champions League quarter-finals according to Mundo Deportivo, which cited anonymous sources.
The Catalans secured qualification to the competition’s last eight by beating Napoli 3-1 on Tuesday and securing a 4-2 score on aggregate, in a last 16 meeting that pitted the reigning La Liga and Serie A holders against one another.
What was more impressive was that Barca pulled this off with a string of injuries in midfield, as Fermin Lopez and Ilkay Gundogan rose to the occasion in front of center back-turned-pivot Andreas Christensen.
The heart and soul of the team Gavi ruptured the ACL in his right knee on international duty in November, and was never likely to line up against the Italians in any event.
Across the weeks that followed a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona in the first leg, it was widely expected that Pedri and De Jong would form a midfield trio with Gundogan for the deciding tie in the Montjuic Stadium, after starting to blossom together in the league.
Less than a first half of football against Athletic Club put paid to that idea, however, with De Jong first leaving the action via an ankle sprain before Pedri hobbled off the San Mames pitch because of a reoccurrence of a muscle injury in the rectus femoris of his right leg.
Head coach Xavi Hernandez has already confirmed that Pedri’s knock is less serious than originally thought. And with qualification to the UCL quarter-finals now secure, the club is confident that he will at least be able to make the deciding second leg as well as El Clasico against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.
The last eight will have their first legs played on April 9 and 10, before the second instalments of the ties come a week later days out from El Clasico on the 21st.
De Jong has better news, and is expected to make all three of these matches because his setback was less serious.
Also this week, forward Ferran Torres will return to the fold and could make his first appearance since being sidelined in late January.
Xavi expects to include him in his squad list for Sunday’s trip to the Metropolitano to face Atletico Madrid, meaning that if he doesn’t suffer another knock, ‘The Shark’ will also be good to go the next time Barca steps out onto the continent.
