FC Barcelona announce squad for La Liga match against Rayo Vallecano

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana look to take another step towards the La Liga title when they travel to Madrid for a tough away game against Rayo Vallecano, and Xavi Hernández has called up the following 21 players for Wednesday’s clash:

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

Defenders: 4. Ronald Araujo, 17. Marcos Alonso, 18. Jordi Alba, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 28. Alejandro Balde, 35. Chadi Riad

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

Forwards: 9. Robert Lewandowski, 10. Ansu Fati, 11. Ferran Torres, 22. Raphinha, 41. Lamine Yamal

In addition to the short turnaround from last Sunday’s game against Atlético Madrid, Xavi is dealing with several absences for this one: three of them are due to injury as Sergi Roberto (hamstring), Ousmane Dembélé (thigh) and Andreas Christensen (calf) miss out once again, though Dembélé and Christensen will return in the next game according to the Barça manager. Sergio Busquets is also out through suspension, so three academy youngsters are called up to make up the numbers: Barça Atlètic center-back Chadi Riad and midfielder Marc Casadó, and 15-year-old Lamine Yamal who is called up for the second straight game.

Predicted starting XI (4-3-3):

Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Eric, Balde; Gavi, De Jong, Pedri; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Ferran

The match kicks off at 10pm CET (Barcelona), 9pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 4pm ET, 1pm PT (USA), 1.30am IST (India, Thursday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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