Barça squad named for Espanyol

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

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

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana play the first game of 2020 away to their crosstown rivals Espanyol, and Ernesto Valverde has called up the following 18 players for the Catalan Derby:

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Goalkeepers: 13. Neto, 26. Iñaki Peña

Defenders: 2. Nélson Semedo, 3. Gerard Piqué, 15. Clément Lenget, 18. Jordi Alba, 23. Samuel Umtiti, 24. Junior Firpo

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Frenkie De Jong, 22. Arturo Vidal

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 17. Antoine Griezmann, 27. Carles Pérez, 31. Ansu Fati

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There’s some bad injury news ahead of a busy month for Barça, with goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen set to miss some time with a knee problem. He isn’t expected to be out for too long, but the German will probably miss next week’s Spanish Super Cup as well. Along with MATS, Arthur (groin) and Ousmane Dembélé (hamstring) miss this one through injury, while Jean-Clair Todibo and Moussa Wagué have not made the squad per the manager’s decision.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Neto; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, De Jong; Messi, Suárez, Griezmann

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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, Sunday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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Source: barcablaugranes.com