In the city of Bilbao, where on Wednesday evening the team "Barcelona" will play the first quarterfinal match of the King's Cup tournament, Luis Enrique's team left significantly changed.
The lineup of the Catalonia team does not include the suspended Luis Suarez, who must miss two tournament matches due to an incident that occurred in the round of 16 after the match with "Espanyol", where the Uruguayan clashed with "Espanyol" players.
In the "Barcelona" lineup, Lionel Messi will also be missing. One of the team's leaders injured his leg muscle during the Spanish league matches against the aforementioned "Athletic" team last weekend. Although a later health check revealed that the Argentine did not suffer a serious injury, the senior Catalan club coach stated that he did not intend to risk the player's health.
There are also serious losses in the left-back position. Jordi Alba injured his leg muscle in the match against the Basques last weekend and will be out of the lineup for at least ten days. Frenchman Jeremy Mathieu is also unable to play due to foot pain.
Traditionally, the Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is not registered for the King's Cup matches, and he will be replaced by the German Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Registered for the match against "Athletic"
Goalkeepers: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jordi Masip;
Defenders: Gerard Pique, Dani Alves, Aleix Vidal, Javier Mascherano, Marc Bartra, Thomas Vermaelen, Adriano Correia, Douglas Pereira;
Midfielders: Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Arda Turan, Sergi Roberto;
Forwards: Neymar, Munir El Haddadi, Sandro Ramirez.
fcbarcelona.lt
