Barcelona announce squad for Copa del Rey semi-final against Valencia

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana look to book a place in the Copa del Rey Final and they’ll face Valencia at Camp Nou in the first leg of the semi-final, and Ernesto Valverde has called up 18 players to be in uniform on Thursday night.

This is the full list:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Jasper Cillessen

Defenders: 3. Gerard Piqué, 18. Jordi Alba, 19. Lucas Digne, 20. Sergi Roberto, 23. Samuel Umtiti, 24. Yerry Mina

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 6. Denis Suarez, 8. Andrés Iniesta, 14. Philippe Coutinho, 15. Paulinho Bezerra, 22. Aleix Vidal

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 17. Paco Alcácer

With players departing the squad over the last week and the injuries slowly going away, Valverde has a more clear picture of what his group looks like and it’s a little easier to choose a squad for each match. For this one he still couldn’t call up the injured Ousmane Dembélé and Thomas Vermaen, as well as André Gomes who hasn’t recovered from a stomach problem. Nélson Semedo will watch the game from the stands.

Predicted starting XI (4-4-2):

Cillessen; Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Alba; Vidal, Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi, Suárez

The match kicks off at 21:30 CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 20:30 GMT (UK), 15:30 EST, 12:30PM PST (USA), 02:00 IST (India, next day), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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