FC Barcelona will be looking to return to the Champions League tonight in hopes of getting a victory. After their failures against Monaco and Osasuna, the Catalan giants are in serious need of a momentum boost right now. Fortunately, Hansi Flick has the right squad at his disposal to give Barcelona exactly that.
With Frenkie de Jong back in the squad as well, the overall quality of the team has significantly gone up. In essence, any player being recovered from injury is basically a new signing for the German coach at this point given that he has not made use of most of them since the start of the season.
For this particular game against BSC Young Boys, however, De Jong is going to start off from the bench given that he is possibly not fully match-ready just yet. However, the lineup that Barcelona have officially released shows that Flick is definitely not playing around and he wants to aim for all three points.
In goal, Inaki Pena starts as the only option right now who is available for selection. Reportedly, Wojciech Szczesny should be in attendance for the game but he may have to wait a little longer to get his chance to overtake Pena in the team’s hierarchy. For now, the Spaniard is the selection made by Hansi Flick.
Ahead of Pena, Flick has decided to field his reliable partnership of Pau Cubarsi and Inigo Martinez. Previously, the experiment that saw both Cubarsi and Sergi Dominguez start as the team’s young pairing seemed to have failed miserably, but this time around it seems that the Barcelona coach will rely on his best options.
On either side of them, Alejandro Balde returns to his left-back position while Jules Kounde retains his place on the right. In terms of a balanced approach, this is Flick’s most trusted pairing and it has worked out quite well so far this season.
As for the two defensive midfielders, Marc Casado starts alongside Pedri. The two Spaniards will be hoping to keep a hold on the game in terms of control at all times and also make sure that their attacking players are enabled enough to cause trouble for the opposition.
Right up ahead of them, Raphinha starts as the central attacking midfielder as he hopes to combine his creativity and composure to help out his fellow forwards. On either side of him, Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres are in the starting lineup as well to offer their services to the team.
Spearheading the attack, lastly, is Robert Lewandowski to no one’s surprise. The Polish ace will be looking for goals in this game and given his history in the Champions League, it definitely is a competition in which he has a good record so far in his career.