Barcelona face a daunting task when they travel to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid next Tuesday for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Metropolitano Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Catalans must overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit at the Camp Nou if they are to reach the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
According to Spanish newspaper Sport, Hans Flick, had already made his intentions clear. Despite resting several regulars in Saturday\u2019s 4\u20131 win over Espanyol\u2014a result that stretched Barcelona\u2019s La Liga lead to nine points\u2014the German coach fielded a near-full-strength side to underline his belief that the tie is far from over.<\/p>\n
The German did, however, hint at several elements of the side he will send out in pursuit of victory.<\/p>\n
\u00a0With Juan Garc\u00eda in goal, Jules Kound\u00e9 and Jo\u00e3o Cancelo were on the bench against Espanyol, and both are expected to start at full-back at the Wanda Metropolitano.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Neither played a minute against Espanyol, but both are expected to start at full fitness on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In defence, Gerard Mart\u00edn should be fit, according to Flick, while Eric Garc\u00eda and Ronald Ara\u00fajo are in line to partner him at centre-back, with Pau Cubars\u00ed suspended after his first-leg red card.<\/p>\n
Frenkie de Jong managed only 10 minutes on his return from a month-and-a-half out, and with Marc Bernat also sidelined, his involvement on Tuesday remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Should he start, Pedri will anchor the midfield; if not, Eric Garcia, Gavi or Casado will step in.<\/p>\n
Up front, Marcus Rashford was also rested against Espanyol, making him the leading candidate to start on the left wing, while Lamine Yamal will provide pace and creativity from the right.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Up front, the centre-forward spot is still open, making the attack the biggest selection dilemma for Flick ahead of the Wanda Metropolitano clash.<\/p>\n
Ferran Torres ended his goal drought by scoring twice in the derby, while Robert Lewandowski was rested and will be fully fit for the European tie. Dani Olmo impressed as a false nine against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid. As a result, Saturday\u2019s outing against Espanyol offers few clues.<\/p>\n
(Read also)… A predicament threatens the comeback… A crippling crisis puts Barcelona\u2019s dream against Atl\u00e9tico in jeopardy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona face a daunting task when they travel to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid next Tuesday for the second leg of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111144,147462,1998,4488,130985,85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-388931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-atletico-madrid","9":"tag-atletico-madrid-vs-barcelona","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-champions-league","12":"tag-h-flick","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}