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There's no Lionel Messi. No Neymar. No Luis Suarez. No Xavi. No Dani Alves. In total, FC Barcelona are missing nine first-team players for tonight's trip to Switzerland and yet, some Culés remain confident that Luis Enrique will be able to mastermind a Blaugrana victory against Rafa Benitez' near full-strength Napoli. Sure, the Partenopei are missing a couple of key players -- most prominently, star striker Gonzalo Higuain -- but courtesy of their immense squad depth, Napoli travel to the Stade de Geneve tonight with a star-studded squad and should rightly be considered favourites.
In browsing their squad for yesterday's preview, I was stunned by their comparative strength in depth; an attacking trio of Marek Hamsik, Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens inspires fear into an opposition defense, but when you consider that Napoli have the likes of Michu, Lorenzo Insigne and Goran Pandev in reserve, well, it just boggles the mind. After all, that reserve line-up is probably still stronger than Barça's starting forward trio for tonight's game. Nevertheless, we must have confidence in our squad and in Lucho's ability as a manager in what should be his first real test as Barcelona coach.
So far, progress has been slow and the jury is still very much out on Lucho thus far, but a good result today, or even just a good performance would go some way to silencing the critics that have already emerged from the woodwork.
Predict the score of tonight's friendly match by commenting with your prediction below. Best of luck!
