Barça squad named for El Clásico 2nd leg

Ernesto Valverde has called up 19 players for the trip to Madrid

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana face their biggest rivals for a place in the Copa del Rey Final as Barça and Real Madrid play the second leg of their semi final tie at the Santiago Bernabéu, and Ernesto Valverde has called up the following 19 players for the trip to Madrid:

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Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Jasper Cillessen, 30. Iñaki Peña

Defenders: 2. Nélson Semedo, 3. Gerard Piqué, 15. Clément Lenglet, 18. Jordi Alba, 23. Samuel Umtiti

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 7. Philippe Coutinho, 8. Arthur, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Carles Aleñá, 22. Arturo Vidal

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 11. Ousmane Dembélé, 14. Malcom

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The big news here is the return of two players from injury: Arthur is back after missing three weeks with a hamstring issue, while Jasper Cillessen comes back over a month after injuring his calf in training. Only Rafinha (knee) and Thomas Vermaelen (leg) miss El Clásico due to injury, while Jeison Murillo, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Sergi Samper and Jean-Clair Todibo didn’t travel to Madrid per the manager’s decision.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Ter Stegen; Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Vidal; Messi, Suárez, Dembélé

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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 our live blog to follow and comment all the action.

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Source: barcablaugranes.com