Barcelona vs Leicester City – Match Preview

FC Barcelona continue their preseason campaign in the 2016 International Champions Cup when they take on English Champions Leicester City at the Friends Arena in Stockholm on Wednesday, August 6 as they prepare for the upcoming official season.

Goals from Arda Turan and Munir El Haddadi ensurer that the Catalans start the campaign in fine form after seeing out Celtic 3-1 in their first preseason game of the 2016/2017 season. They now aim to continue being victorious when they go head-to-head against Claudio Ranieri’s men.

Barça’s opponent Leicester City have played three preseason games so far this season with their recent game being a 4-0 loss to French Champions PSG. The English champions will take part in the UEFA Champions League this season and are thoroughly preparing for the tournament by partaking in games against Europe’s elite. However, star striker Jamie Vardy is a doubt for the foxes for the game against Barça.

The reverse is the case for the Azulgranas as they will see an improvement to the squad that beat Celtic 3-0 on Saturday. First team regulars Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets are part of the 21-man squad selected by Luis Enrique for the game against Leicester City which makes the club have 12 first team players to choose from.

The game is highly anticipated despite being just a friendly match. Both teams have only met on one occasion previously in the past which came in a friendly in 2003 with FC Barcelona coming out 1-0 winners in a game that saw current coach Luis Enrique captain the team and former striker Javier Saviola netting the only goal.

The game will be Leicester City’s fourth and final game of their preseason schedule with full focus going to be placed on the Community Shield clash against Manchester United on Sunday.

Meanwhile for FC Barcelona, Leicester will be their second game of the summer and after taking on the Foxes on Wednesday, they will go head-to-head against another English side Liverpool at the Wembley stadium three days later.

Star players such as Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Arda Turan are all likely to start for FC Barcelona in the game with new signing Denis Suarez also featuring.

Possible FC Barcelona lineup: Jordi Masip; Aleix Vidal, Javier Mascherano, Jeremy Mathieu, Sergi Roberto; Denis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Arda Turan; Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Munir.