Messi and Dembélé back together as Barcelona announce squad for La Liga match against Levante

Ernesto Valverde has called up 18 players for the first league match of the new year

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana welcome Levante to Camp Nou for the first La Liga game of 2018, and Ernesto Valverde has called up 18 players to be in uniform for this one.

This is the full squad:

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Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Jasper Cillessen

Defenders: 2. Nélson Semedo, 3. Gerard Piqué, 14. Javier Mascherano, 18. Jordi Alba, 19. Lucas Digne, 20. Sergi Roberto, 25. Thomas Vermaelen

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 6. Denis Suarez, 8. Andrés Iniesta, 15. Paulinho Bezerra, 21. André Gomes, 21. André Gomes

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 11. Ousmane Dembélé, 37. José Arnáiz

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New signing Philippe Coutinho isn’t ready to make his debut yet, but the Messi, Suárez, Dembélé trio is back for the first time since Ousmane’s injury. There are quite a few absences, though: Samuel Umtiti, Paco Alcácer and Arda Turan miss out through injury, Sergio Busquets is suspended and Gerard Deulofeu, Rafinha and Aleix Vidal are out per technical decision.

Predicted starting XI (4-4-2):

Ter Stegen

Semedo, Piqué, Vermaelen, Alba

Roberto, Rakitic, Paulinho, Iniesta

Messi, Suárez

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The match kicks off at 4:15pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3:15pm GMT (UK), 10:15am ET, 7:15am PT (USA), 8:45pm IST (India), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

VISCA EL BARÇA!

Source: Renato Goncalves http://ift.tt/2m6FtLs