FC Barcelona announce squad for Copa del Rey semi-final 1st leg against Real Madrid

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana travel to the Spanish Cup for the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 21 players for Thursday’s El Clásico:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. 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: 5. Sergio Busquets, 6. Gavi, 19. Franck Kessie, 20. Sergi Roberto, 21. Frenkie De Jong, 32. Pablo Torre

Forwards: 10. Ansu Fati, 11. Ferran Torres, 22. Raphinha, 38. Angel Alarcón, 39. Estanis Pedrola

The bad run of injury luck continues as Robert Lewandowski has been ruled out for at least the next two games with a hamstring issue, and he joins Pedri (hamstring) and Ousmane Dembélé on the injured list. Without his top striker Xavi calls up youth academy stars Angel Alarcón and Estanis Pedrola to add depth up front, and Ansu Fati makes a timely return from a knee injury. Andreas Christensen is in the squad but has an ankle problem that could keep him out of the lineup, and it’ll be up to the player to decide if he wants to give it a go or sit this one out.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Ter Stegen; Araujo, Kounde, Christensen, Balde; Kessie, Busquets, De Jong; Raphinha, Ferran, Gavi

The match kicks off at 9pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 8pm GMT (UK), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Friday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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