FC Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde heavily rotated his squad yesterday in his side’s goalless draw with minnows Huesca. The result was a drab, listless performance, but with eyes on the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie with Manchester United, (and the domestic leaguer pretty much wrapped up) the decision made perfect sense.
“Of course we always want to win, but there were some exceptional circumstances for us here,” Valverde told his post game press conference. “We’d played Wednesday [against United] and we have the second leg on Tuesday.”
“I thought it was time to make changes. It was a test for the players that played, and I think they did well.”
Let’s take a look at what first team lineup Valverde might field in this one, with his starters now fresh.
FC Barcelona Starting XI Prediction vs Manchester United (UCL Quarterfinal, Barca up 1-0)
Ousmane Dembele Luis Suarez Lionel Messi
Arthur Melo Sergio Busquets Ivan Rakitic
Jordi Alba Clement Lenglet Gerard Pique Semedo
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Manchester United vs FC Barcelona (1-0 aggregate) UEFA Champions League Quarter-final FYIs
Kickoff- Tuesday Apr 16 Camp Nou 8pm
Injury Report for both sides: go to this link
Starting XI Predictions- FC Barcelona Manchester United
Google Result Probability- FC Barcelona win 68%, Draw 20%, Manchester United win 12%
Referee- Felix Brych
Odds via BetFair- FC Barcelona 2/5, Draw 4/1, Manchester United win 15/2
Press conference video, quotes- coming Monday
Prediction- FC Barcelona 2, United 1
Having pretty much already locked up La Liga, Barca will be locked in on trying to win this competition, and that focus will be difficult for United to overcome.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.