FC Barcelona made several acquisitions this summer and most of the players who joined the club this summer have already made their debuts.
Oriol Romeu is one of the mainstays for Xavi in the pivot position, while Gundogan has also already played significant minutes with the first team since joining the Catalan club. Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo also made their starting debuts in the last La Liga match against Real Betis.
Martinez yet to start a game for Barcelona
Only one player remains who has yet to make his starting debut at Barcelona, i.e., the central defender, Inigo Martinez.
The Spaniard joined the Catalan club without being 100% fit after running down his contract at Athletic Bilbao. However, he has completely recovered from the plantar fascia that kept him out of action during the pre-season, and he also got some minutes against Osasuna and Real Betis.
Likely to start against Antwerp
In this regard, Mundo Deportivo notes that Xavi is expected to make changes to his starting lineup for the Champions League match tomorrow, and one such change can see Inigo Martinez start the game for Barcelona.
Kounde and Christensen have started all the matches for Barcelona, with the Frenchman having played all the possible, at least 450, minutes with Barcelona in addition to the 115 he played with France. Christensen has also played 336 minutes for Barcelona and another 90 for Denmark.
Thus, Xavi can give Martinez his first start in a Barcelona shirt tomorrow. While he has not experienced playing in the Champions League much, the Basque defender remains the most experienced defender in the current Barcelona team -having played more than 400 La Liga games before joining FC Barcelona- who has also represented Spain twenty times in his career.