FC Barcelona announce squad for Europa League Playoffs 1st leg against Manchester United

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana begin their journey in the 2022-23 Europa League with a huge Playoff first leg against Manchester United at Camp Nou, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 22 players for Thursday’s game:

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

Defenders: 4. Ronald Araujo, 15. Andreas Christensen, 17. Marcos Alonso, 18. Jordi Alba, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 28. Alejandro Balde

Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 19. Franck Kessie, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Frenkie De Jong, 29. Marc Casadó, 30. Gavi, 32. Pablo Torre

Forwards: 9. Robert Lewandowski, 10. Ansu Fati, 11. Ferran Torres, 22. Raphinha, 38. Ángel Alarcón

Xavi continues to manage the squad without two of his starters as Sergio Busquets (ankle) and Ousmane Dembélé (thigh) miss out once again due to injury, which means a call-up for youth stars Marc Casadó and Ángel Alarcón to add some depth to the team. As for shirt numbers, Gavi is back to wearing #30 as his change to #6 only applies to La Liga due to UEFA’s squad rules.

Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):

Ter Stegen; Araujo, Kounde, Christensen, Balde; De Jong, Kessie; Raphinha, Pedri, Gavi; Lewandowski

The match kicks off at 6.45pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 5.45pm GMT (UK), 12.45pm ET, 9.45am PT (USA), 11.15pm IST (India), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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