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18 Players in Barcelona squad to face Villarreal

Barça train ahead of Villarreal clash | Image: FCB

After losing their first game of the year 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey, Barcelona will be looking to bounce back in an even bigger competition against a better opponent when they take on Villarreal at El Madrigal on Sunday night

Coach Luis Enrique is aware of the threat posed by Fran Escribá’s men as they’ve been in great form in the league this season, and although Barça have been the better team in recent encounters, they will be given a fight on Sunday night.

Lucho has named 18 players in his squad that will travel to Madrid for the game and it’s a strong one, similar to the squad that faced Athletic Bilbao during the weekend. Jasper Cillessen is the only player that won’t be travelling with the squad due to injury while defender Jérémy Mathieu has received the medical greenlight but was left out for technical reasons.

Denis Suárez returns to the squad list after being left out of the Athletic game. Jordi Masip comes in place of the injured Cillessen. Star players including the MSN, Iniesta, Busquets and Gerard Pique all feature as expected but Ivan Rakitic was surprisingly left out of the squad for technical reasons.

BARÇA SQUAD VS VILLARREAL

Goalkeepers: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Jordi Masip;

Defenders: Sergi Roberto, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Piqué, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Digne, Jordi Alba;

Midfielders: André Gomes, Rafinha Alcántara, Sergio Busquets, Andrés Iniesta, Arda Turan, Denis Suárez;

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

SHOULD LUIS ENRIQUE CONTINUE AS BARCA COACH NEXT SEASON

This post was last modified on December 14, 2018 10:00 am

Precious

Precious is a lover of football, enthusiastic but unbiased Culer. "Life is too short to not love football."

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