FC Barcelona announce squad for Champions League debut against Monaco

The next Barcelona match is upon us! The Blaugrana begin a new European journey with their first Champions League game of the season away to Monaco, and Hansi Flick has called up the following 23 players for Thursday’s clash:

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Iñaki Peña, 26. Ander Astralaga

Defenders: 2. Pau Cubarsí, 3. Alejandro Balde, 5. Iñigo Martínez, 23. Jules Kounde, 24. Eric García, 32. Héctor Fort, 35. Gerard Martín, 36. Sergi Domínguez, 39. Andrés Cuenca

Midfielders: 8. Pedri, 14. Pablo Torre, 17. Marc Casadó, 41. Guille Fernández

Forwards: 7. Ferran Torres, 9. Robert Lewandowski, 10. Ansu Fati, 11. Raphinha, 18. Pau Víctor, 19. Lamine Yamal, 42. Toni Fernández

The big news for this one is return of Ansu Fati, who is finally ready to make his seaason debut after missing the first month of the campaign with a foot injury. Ansu’s return adds much-needed depth as Barça will be missing Dani Olmo over the next 4-5 weeks with a hamstring injury, and Fermín López is out for the next three weeks after picking up another muscle problem in his first day back in training this week. The two midfielders join Ronald Araujo (hamstring), Andreas Christensen (Achilles) and Marc Bernal (knee) on the list of long-term absences, while Gavi (knee) and Frenkie de Jong (ankle) are back in training but not yet cleared.

Predicted starting XI (4-2-3-1):

Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; Casadó, Pedri; Yamal, Raphinha, Ferran; Lewandowski

The match kicks off at 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Friday), and you can join us to follow and comment all the action.

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