Barcelona has gone two seasons without playing in the round of 16 of the Champions League and in the double confrontation against Shakhtar Donetsk in Montjuïc and on November 7 in Hamburg, Xavi Hernández’s team has the opportunity to certify their ticket to play a tie again of the top European competition.
Xavi Hernández’s team has achieved a plethora of victories after the first two days of the group stage. They enjoyed against Antwerp (5-0) and suffered in Porto (0-1), where they took a giant step not only to seal qualification for the next round, but to do so as leaders of group H.
To achieve the first of the two victories, Barça will have to overcome the seven casualties it has suffered. Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri, Sergi Roberto and Jules Koundé will not be able to play due to injury, while Gavi will serve a one-match suspension for the double yellow card he received in Portugal.
The FC Barcelona eleven: Ter Stegen; Cancelo, Araujo, Íñigo Martínez, Marcos Alonso; Romeu, Gündogan, Fermín; Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and Jõao Félix.
The proximity of the league classic against Real Madrid on Saturday invited Xavi to bet on rotations, but he will have very little room for maneuver. For this reason, the coach of the Barça team uses 8 players from the youth team to complete the call with 12 players from the first team.
Xavi can only allow rotations in the defensive area. Marcos Alonso rests Balde in the left lane and Ronald Araújo and Íñigo Martínez, who stood out against Athletic, play initially in the rear axis. Rest Christensen.
In the center of the field, Xavi once again opts for Oriol Romeu as a pivot and Gündogan and Fermín López in the left and right interiors respectively. In attack there are no surprises either. Ferran Torres plays accompanied by Jõao Félix on the left wing and Lamine Yamal on the right.
In front of them, Barça will have a Shakhtar who is risking almost all of their chances of continuing to play in Europe once the group stage ends this Wednesday, in a difficult exit that they also face in the midst of a change on the bench. Mario Pusic, former assistant coach of Feyenoord, was presented yesterday as the new coach.
The club from the Donetsk mining region is now coached by former Croatian international Dario Srna, who will accompany Pusic on the bench and who was one of the architects of the club’s golden era as a player. He has prepared the team for the Barcelona match.
Shakhtar comes into the match against the Blaugrana as third in the table, tied on points with Porto, which is second for having beaten the Ukrainians in their direct duel.
Srna travels to Barcelona with Burkinabé striker Lassina Traoré missing due to injury. Ukrainian midfielder Ivan Petryak will also be absent due to physical problems.
Also left off the list are Oleksí Kashchuk and Bogdan Viunnyk, two members of the Ukrainian U-23 team that was proclaimed runner-up in the U-23 Euro Cup held this summer in Romania.
The presence of up to twelve midfielders in the squad suggests that Shakhtar will opt to populate the center of the field to make combination play difficult for Barcelona and go on the attack quickly, with the support of winger Konoplia on the right.
El once del Shakhtar: Riznyk; Konoplia, Bondar, Matviyenko, Azarov; Stepanenko; Zubkov, Bondarenko, Sudakov, Kryskiv y Sikan
