Barcelona’s expected XI to face Real Madrid | OneFootball

Confirmation of the line-up expected to be fielded by Barcelona for the club’s La Liga showdown with arch rivals Real Madrid on Saturday night has this afternoon been provided.

The info comes courtesy of Diario Sport, and points towards Hansi Flick preparing to take the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach.

The understanding is that, as things stand, the plan is for Barcelona to take to the pitch at the Santiago Bernabéu with the same group who put Bayern Munich to the sword in comprehensive fashion on the continent in midweek.

This means, starting from the back, that Iñaki Peña will maintain his place between the posts.

Moving forward into defence, and a four-man unit of Jules Koundé, Pau Cubarsí, Iñigo Martínez and Alejandro Balde will be tasked with keeping Real Madrid’s star-studded frontline in check.

At the base of midfield, Pedri will again be joined by Marc Casadó, with Fermín López set to be given the nod in the more advanced role after his two assists against Bayern on Wednesday.

Finally, Barca’s frontline will be made up of the in-form trio of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Robert Lewandowski.

All told, this means an XI of:

Peña, Koundé, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde, Casadó, Pedri, Fermín, Lamine, Raphinha and Lewandowski.

Conor Laird – GSFN