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Barcelona were beaten by newly-promoted Granada in a shock result on Saturday evening.
Even though the Catalans were the obvious favourites, they suffered a 2-0 defeat that leaves them in ninth place in La Liga.
But on Tuesday, they will welcome Villarreal to Camp Nou and Ernesto Valverde won’t have any excuses left – the Blaugrana will have to go for the victory, and a convincing one at that.
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Seeing how the manager decided to experiment in the clash against Granada – Arthur Melo was benched, and he altered his midfield considerably – his team selection failed miserably, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Valverde admit his mistakes and revert back to the formula that works.
With that in mind, here’s the team we think Barcelona will field against the Yellow Submarine:
Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s spot is hardly ever in question and despite conceding a total of nine goals in five games played in La Liga this season, the German is bound to start between the sticks once again.
His backline should also be the same one we saw against Granada. Junior Firpo returns at left-back since Jordi Alba is still out of commission, Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet will be the Catalans’ centre-backs and Nelson Semedo will man the right-back spot.
The midfield is where it gets extremely interesting.
Even though we saw some changes and Ivan Rakitic and Sergi Roberto were introduced at the weekend, it’s unlikely that Valverde will experiment again so both Arthur Melo and Sergio Busquets should start the game alongside Frenkie de Jong.
As far as the front three are concerned, there is bound to be one crucial change compared to last game – Lionel Messi, who started the clash against Granada on the bench, should be making his big return to the starting lineup alongside Luis Suarez at centre-forward and Antoine Griezman on the left.
Ousmane Dembele has finally received his medical green light and even though he’ll be on the bench, it’s difficult to see him starting the game.