Predicted Teams Chelsea-Barcelona: Marcus Rashford to return in front of unusual midfield | OneFootball

Barcelona have a date with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night (21:00 CEST kick-off), which many will see as an acid test of their perceived improvement. Since El Clasico, Barcelona have put together a run of three wins and a draw, scoring 14 goals; albeit conceding six times.

The big news for Barcelona is that Frenkie de Jong is back from suspension, while Marcus Rashford has returned from the flu. Raphinha is expected to be fit for some minutes off the bench in the second half, as was the case against Athletic Club in their 4-0 win. Pedri is not yet fit in time to return.

Barcelona to start with unusual midfield against Chelsea

The return of de Jong and Rashford will not remove Eric Garcia from midfield though, say Sport, after he put in a fine performance at the weekend. They predict Flick will play Fermin Lopez ahead of Garcia and de Jong, with Ronald Araujo remaining in defence, for what has become a rare big-game start for the Uruguayan. Dani Olmo will drop to the bench; Gavi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen remain injured.

Image via Sport

Chelsea to test Barcelona physicality

On the Chelsea side of things, despite Cole Palmer training on Monday, he is expected to be out of action, and in the stands alongside Dario Essugo, Romeo Lavia and Levi Colwill. MD believe that Trevoh Chalobah will partner Tosin Adarabioyo in defence, and Reece James will get the nod over Malo Gusto.

At the other end of the pitch, the consensus is that Liam Delap will be flanked by Estevao Willian, but there is some debate over whether Pedro Neto or Alejandro Garnacho will be on the other side of him.

A key part of the battle will be in the middle of the pitch though, where Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo will seek to smother Barcelona’s creative presence. The match-up also sees Lamine Yamal take on Spain teammate Marc Cucurella, in what looks like a key battle.