FC Barcelona get ready to face off against Royal Antwerp in the UEFA Champions League. The Catalan giants will take on their Belgian opponents soon as kickoff is close to an hour away in Belgium.
For Xavi’s men, a victory here is more or less inconsequential as the progression to the next round as group leaders is already believed to be done and dusted.
Ahead of the clash, there was already speculation that a rotated squad could feature for Barcelona. Given the inconsequential game at hand against Antwerp, at least from the perspective of qualification, Xavi has more room to experiment and allow less regular players to feature.
Ultimately, that has turned out to be the case exactly. FC Barcelona have released their official starting XI to take on Royal Antwerp, and there are some eye-catching rotations all across the field.
In goal, as was expected, Inaki Pena gets the nod. For the time being, the Spaniard is set to start each and every official game until Marc Andre Ter Stegen recovers from his back surgery. Pena’s recent contributions have been great, but the game against Girona was a setback he would want to recover from.
Ahead of him, in defense, Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen form the duo of central defenders. Both the Frenchman and the Dane were not at their best nor sharpest against Girona recently. However, they have the quality to pull themselves up again.
On the flanks of the defense, Hector Fort and Alejandro Balde start. Fort starts primarily as the right-back while Balde returns to his left-back position. This opportunity for two La Masia fullbacks to shine simultaneously will be quite the treat to watch. For Fort, this will be his Champions League debut.
Then comes the midfield, which comprises of three players. Oriol Romeu returns to the starting eleven and starts for Barcelona after losing quite a lot of prominence. Ahead of him, Sergi Roberto and Fermin Lopez form a mixed duo of an experienced veteran and a dynamic youngster.
Lastly, we have the frontline. Robert Lewandowski starts alongside Ferran Torres as his left-winger and Lamine Yamal as his right-winger. This mixture of seasoned expertise and spontaneous youth could help Barça steer this fragile ship in a healthy direction, and pin Antwerp back even if it is away from home for Barça.
