FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez will go all out with his line up for Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
The Catalans have a 3-2 advantage on aggregate earned from the first installment of the tie at the Parc des Princes.
Despite this, Xavi has previously said that Luis Enrique’s men are the favourites to go through to the last four and stressed at his pre-match press conference on Monday that Barca is “facing one of the best teams in the world and one of the best coaches in the world.
“We’ll see a PSG that will surely be brave,” he added.
Xavi looks set to be so as well by making one huge call. Despite the Spain international not starting since a March 3 meeting with Athletic Club where he pulled up with a reoccurrence of the right thigh knock that plagued him at the start of the season, he will run out from the offset.
Forming a midfield trio with Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Ilkay Gundogan are key for Xavi as he believes “they are players who give us control and the last pass, like Pedri did in the first leg or Gundo in many games”.
“They are very similar, they have pausa and they dictate the pace … We’re facing one of the most intense teams in the world and they don’t give anything away. With space and time, with Gundogan and Pedri, we have a lot to gain,” the coach insisted.
Apart from that, Xavi’s team is almost identical to the one that topped PSG at home last time out.
With only Pau Cubarsi and Marc-Andre ter Stegen not rested at the weekend to take on Cadiz, the Blaugrana’s troops should also be relatively fresh.
Protecting Ter Stegen’s goal, Cubarsi forms a central defensive partnership with Ronald Araujo while Joao Cancelo and Jules Kounde are the left and right backs.
The midfield is as mentioned, and up top we again see two-goal MVP of the first leg Raphinha keeping Joao Felix off the left wing as Lamine Yamal is on the other flank with striker Robert Lewandowski wedged between.
FC Barcelona First XI Vs. Paris Saint-Germain: Ter Stegen; Cancelo, Cubarsi, Araujo, Kounde; Gundogan, De Jong, Pedri; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Lamine
