Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has selected twenty players to travel to Amsterdam for the UEFA Champions League encounter with Ajax, on Wednesday. Hours before the match, he'll cut two players that will watch the game from the stands.
On Wednesday night, Barcelona play Ajax in a pivotal match. It's Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League group stage, and Barça must win, not only to secure a place in the knockout round, but also to regain good spirits after two losses in La Liga and four straight lackluster performances in the last few weeks.
Coach Luis Enrique is under fire, suffering huge criticism and being blamed for the recent negative results. Fans and media have urged the boss to change his tactics in order to find the best possible lineup, and Enrique has signaled he'll probably do it, as we saw in the Saturday loss to Celta Vigo, when the boss threw Pedro into the game as a right wing-back, unleashing a 3-4-3 lineup that actually played well in the last minutes of the game.
We have no idea if Enrique is going to continue with the 3-4-3 scheme, but we do know he needs to change things. For the trip to Amsterdam, he has selected all of his available first team players, plus one Barça B guy. Twenty were named by Lucho, and two will be cut from the official 18-man squad hours before the game, and those will watch the match from the stands.
Andrés Iniesta, Thomas Vermaelen, Sergi Roberto and Jérémy Mathieu, all injured, are guaranteed to miss the game and will not even travel to Holland. Roberto is a last-minute problem, and he'll stay in Barcelona to nurse a groin strain.
These are the 20 players named by Enrique for the trip to Amsterdam:
1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Claudio Bravo, 25. Jordi Masip, 2. Martín Montoya, 3. Gerard Piqué, 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 6. Xavi Hernández, 7. Pedro Rodríguez, 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 11. Neymar Jr., 12. Rafinha Alcântara, 14. Javier Mascherano, 15. Marc Bartra, 16. Douglas Pereira, 18. Jordi Alba, 21. Adriano, 22. Dani Alves, 31. Munir El-Haddadi
Expected Starting Lineup (4-3-1-2)
Stegen | Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba | Busquets, Xavi, Rakitic | Messi | Suárez, Neymar
The game is on Wednesday, at 20:45 CET, and you can follow and comment all the action right here, at Barça Blaugranes.
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