FC Barcelona announce squad for Copa del Rey Round of 16 against Athletic Bilbao

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana travel to the Basque Country for a Copa del Rey Round of 16 game against Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 22 players for Thursday’s clash:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Neto, 36. Arnau Tenas

Defenders: 2. Sergiño Dest, 3. Gerard Piqué, 4. Ronald Araujo, 8. Dani Alves, 15. Clément Lenglet, 18. Jordi Alba, 22. Óscar Mingueza, 31. Alejandro Balde

Midfielders: 5. Sergio Busquets, 6. Riqui Puig, 16. Pedri, 21. Frenkie De Jong, 28. Nico González, 30. Gavi

Forwards: 10. Ansu Fati, 12. Martin Braithwaite, 19. Ferran Torres, 29. Ferran Jutglà, 33. Ez Abde

As usual there are plenty of team news ahead of this one, with Ousmane Dembélé the surprise omission from the list as the Frenchman has been left and also told to leave the club this morning. Also missing this one is the suspended Luuk De Jong along with the injured Eric García (hamstring), Sergi Roberto (thigh) and Samuel Umtiti (foot). Martin Braithwaite does make a welcome return after knee surgery but Memphis Depay misses out with hamstring trouble.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Neto; Dest, Piqué, Araujo, Alba; Gavi, Busquets, Pedri; Ez Abde, Ferran, Fati

The match kicks off at 9.30pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8.30pm GMT (UK), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 2am IST (India, Friday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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