Barcelona and Athletic Club will kick off the Spanish Supercup on Wednesday night at 20:00 CEST in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the first of two semi-finals. Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid will do battle on Thursday, with the final taking place on Sunday evening.
Both sides come into the tie with significant injuries. Marc-Andre ter Stegen returned to Barcelona’s injury list, flying back to Catalonia after sustaining an injury in training. Like Andreas Christensen and Gavi, he will miss out, but there is also doubt over Lamine Yamal’s fitness, after he missed training on Tuesday. It appears Ronald Araujo is unlikely to return, despite being in the squad.
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Meanwhile Ernesto Valverde is without Aymeric Laporte, Yuri Berchiche, Unai Egiluz, Benat Prados and Maroan Sannadi. Los Leones are coming off a 1-1 draw with Osasuna at El Sadar, while Barcelona beat Espanyol in the Catalan derby on Saturday.
Will Lamine Yamal start?
Both Sport and MD agree that Pedri, Fermin Lopez and Robert Lewandowski will be restored to the line-up, pushing Raphinha back out to the left at the expense of Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford. The former say that Eric Garcia will remain in midfield though, with Frenkie de Jong dropping out and Gerard Martin in the backline. MD believe Garcia will drop to centre-back, with Martin out of the line-up.
There is no consensus on whether Lamine Yamal will start the match, but if he does not, Roony Bardghji would be his replacement.
Inaki Williams question mark for Athletic Club
Meanwhile there is also a question mark over Inaki Williams’ presence. The Athletic captain has struggled for form, and MD suggest that Gorka Guruzeta could play ahead of him, with Alex Berenguer on the right. Oihan Sancet, Mikel Jauregizar and Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta are the settled midfield trio.
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The big headache for Valverde is in the backline. Without Laporte, Aitor Paredes and Dani Vivian seem guaranteed to start in central defence. It looks as if Inigo Lekue could start ahead of Adama Boiro in the absence of Yuri. If Lamine Yamal does start, Lekue’s natural right-footed nature could help combat the Spain international’s tendency to cut in.
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