Sports Mole looks at how Barcelona could line up in Sunday’s Barcelona derby against Espanyol, including returns to the XI for two players.
Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick is expected to hand starts to Frenkie de Jong and Dani Olmo on Sunday afternoon, as the La Liga leaders continue their 2024-25 campaign at home to Catalan rivals Espanyol.
De Jong and Olmo both featured off the bench in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Real Madrid in El Clasico, but the fit-again duo could potentially take the places of Marc Casado and Fermin Lopez for the Barcelona derby against Espanyol.
Inaki Pena is currently operating between the sticks due to Marc-Andre ter Stegen‘s season-ending knee injury, while the back four is settled, so there are unlikely to be any changes to that area on Sunday.
There will also not be any alterations in the final third of the field, with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal all in excellent form in the early months of the 2024-25 campaign.
All three have made 14 appearances this season, with Lewandowski boasting 17 goals and two assists, Raphinha 10 goals and nine assists, while Yamal has six goals and seven assists.
Barcelona, who are six points clear at the top of the La Liga table, will again be without the services of Ferran Torres, Ter Stegen, Marc Bernal, Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araujo for this weekend’s contest due to injury problems.
Meanwhile, Eric Garcia is a major doubt, as the defender has still not been able to return to training following a recent muscular problem, and he is therefore highly unlikely to be in the squad for this contest.
Barcelona possible starting lineup: Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, I Martinez, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
> Click here to see how Espanyol could line up for this match
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