Barça vs Napoli: Preview

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

The final preseason match for Barça gives them a crucial test before the start of La Liga

FC Barcelona vs SSC Napoli

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Competition/Round: 2019 La Liga | Serie A, Second Leg

First Leg Result: Barcelona 2-1 Napoli

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Lionel Messi (out), Philippe Coutinho, Arturo Vidal (doubt)

Napoli Outs & Doubts: Eljif Elmas (doubt)

Date/Time: Saturday, August 10, 2019, 11pm CET (Barcelona), 10pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 5pm ET, 2pm PT (USA), 2.30am IST (India, Sunday)

Venue: Michigan Stadium, Michigan, USA

How to watch on TV: ESPN2 (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), TV3 (Spain), others

How to stream: WatchESPN (USA), Premier Player (UK), others

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This is it. The final match of preseason has arrived and Barcelona will complete the preparations for the 2019/20 campaign with the second friendly of the week against Napoli, this time at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, the largest venue ever to host a Barça game.

The La Liga | Serie A event is an actual tournament, with a limit of six substitutions and an aggregate score system that will take Saturday’s game to penalties if Napoli win by one goal. That doesn’t matter at all and this is still a friendly with no implications beyond physical and technical preparation, but it’s important to inform you about it.

Ernesto Valverde hinted at his pre-match press conference that the starting lineup for Saturday will be the same for the La Liga debut against Athletic Bilbao next Friday, so both his selection and the performance of that team will be very interesting to watch.

The result is not important, but the start of the season is less than a week away. Playing well matters, especially defensively after the horror show in Miami. For neutrals, this promises to be fun once again. For Barça fans, it’s about a preview of next week. Hopefully it’s a positive one.

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POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, De Jong, Aleñá; Dembélé, Suárez, Griezmann

Napoli (4-4-2): Ospina; Hysaj, Manolas, Chiriches, Ghoulam; Malcuit, Allan, Fabián, Younes; Verdi, Milik

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PREDICTION

It’s the last “who cares, it’s a friendly” prediction of the season! 3-1 Barça.

Source: barcablaugranes.com