18 Players in Barcelona squad to face Real Sociedad

FC Barcelona will be hoping to break the Anoeta curse when they travel to take on Real Sociedad in a fixture they’ve failed to pick up three points from in 9 years.

Coach Luis Enrique must be well aware of the importance and difficulty of the game and would’ve definitely set up a plan to knock the hosts down because a loss on Sunday night will mean they fall 7 points behind Real Madrid after Los Blancos secured a scrappy 2-1 win over Sporting Gijón on Saturday evening.

Coach Luis Enrique has named 18 players in the squad to travel to the Anoeta and there are no major returnees. Andrés Iniesta and Samuel Umtiti are back in light training but did get the medical greenlight to feature, hence, did not make the match squad. Arda Turan picked a slight fever and also misses the game while defender Jérémy Mathieu also didn’t make the match squad through injury.

Aside from the sick and injured, Jordi Masip didn’t make the squad as usual while Aleix Vidal was dropped for technical reasons. With this, Marlon Santos and Carles Aleña both were called up to fill the spaces left and will wear jersey numbers 33 and 28 respectively. Gérard Piqué who missed training on Friday made the squad.

Goalkeepers: Marc André Ter Stegen, Jordi Masip;

Defenders: Sergi Roberto, Marlon Santos, Gérard Piqué, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Digne, Jordi Alba;

Midfielders: Iván Rakitic, André Gomes, Sergio Busquets, Denis Suarez, Rafinha Alcántara, Carlés Aleña

Forwards: Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Neymar, Paco Alcácer