FC Barcelona announce squad for La Liga season opener against Rayo Vallecano

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana kick off the 2022-23 La Liga season when they welcome Rayo Vallecano to the Spotify Camp Nou, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 23 players for Saturday’s game:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 26. Iñaki Peña, 36. Arnau Tenas

Defenders: 3. Gerard Piqué, 4. Ronald Araujo, 15. Andreas Christensen, 18. Jordi Alba, 24. Eric García, 28. Alejandro Balde

Midfielders: 5. Sergio Busquets, 8. Pedri, 16. Miralem Pjanic, 19. Franck Kessie, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Frenkie De Jong, 30. Gavi

Forwards: 7. Ousmane Dembélé, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 10. Ansu Fati, 11. Ferran Torres, 14. Memphis Depay, 17. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 22. Raphinha

The first squad list of the season includes all six of the players registered on Friday as well as Memphis Depay, who is close to completing a move to Juventus but is still called up for this one. Jules Koundé is yet to be registered and misses out, while Sergiño Dest, Ez Abde, Álex Collado, Samuel Umtiti and Martin Braithwaite have all been left out per the manager's decision.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Ter Stegen; Araujo, Christensen, Eric, Alba; Gavi, Busquets, Pedri; Dembélé, Lewandowski, Raphinha

The match kicks off at 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Sunday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

VISCA EL BARÇA!