A week on from our first game back in La Liga action, we’re back with another. And another tough test for this heavily weakened, young Barca side. It’s our first home game of the season, live from 9pm local time. And it’s against the historic side of Athletic Club. Games between the two of us are never easy, and led by Ernesto Valverde, it pretty much guarantees they’ll always be well organised. It’s another test for Flick in his first home game of his tenure here as our new head coach. And after a vital win away at Mestalla last weekend, we’re going to need every bit of home support from the fans to push us through a tough fixture.
A Quick Look at our opponent:
Athletic Club are a staple side in La Liga. A successful historic side with a unique transfer policy too. The basque side are always a tough test for us, regardless of the situation we’re in. Not only are there a few familiar faces and reunions on the cards for tonight’s game, but we’ll also be coming up against a player this club has ben chasing all summer long: Nico Williams. Barcelona have spent the entire summer transfer window chasing the signature of the young talent. And although there were times where it looked like a deal could happen, in the end, he remains in Bilbao. So it’ll be interesting to see his performance tonight. But we’ll also have to watch out for his brother, Iñaki, too. Someone who always turns up against Barca. As it’s still early on in the season, it’s difficult to fully judge where each team is at, so we’re going to jump straight into the lineup.
Possible lineup:
Coming into the game, we’ll be without a number of key players. Some due to injury such as Gavi, Ansu and Frenkie who are all still recovering. Christensen has also picked up an injury recently, leaving him out for the next 2 months/ But others due to transfers away from the club, including Gundogan who sealed his return back to Man City just a couple days ago. A deal that hasn’t gone down very well with any of the fanbase. And another example of how poor the squad planning has been this summer. So our options are limited right now. And I feel for Flick in that regard. Fermin Lopez is back though, and that’s a big positive.One change I can see from our last game is the return of Pedri in place of Ferran. But I’d expect the rest of the team to remain the same. It would be nice to see Pau Victor start ahead of Lewandowski, or even alongside him. But we might not see that until the second half.
My starting 11:
MATS
Kounde- Cubarsi- Iñigo- Balde
Casado- Bernal
Yamal- Pedri- Raphinha
Lewandowski
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