Barcelona will draw the curtains on their UEFA Champions League campaign for this season on Tuesday night when they face off against Viktoria Plzen in the final Group C encounter.
The Blaugrana crashed out of the Champions League last week following Inter Milan’s resounding win over Viktoria Plzen, following which Xavi’s men stumbled to a loss against Bayern Munich.
Barça did return to winning ways on Saturday as they secured a last-ditch 1-0 win over Valencia in La Liga and will want to end their Champions League journey on a high with a win in the Czech Republic.
Ahead of Tuesday’s match, manager Xavi has released the squad list that he will be taking to Plzen. And there are some surprises in store as the 42-year-old has opted to leave Robert Lewandowski out of the squad, opting to grant his ace striker a rest.
Apart from Lewandowski, captain Sergio Busquets also misses out as he is suspended for the tie and may very well have played his final Champions League match for Barcelona, considering that he is out of contract at the end of the season.
Eric Garcia and Jules Kounde, who picked up injuries in the win over Valencia, are also absent from the squad list. The likes of Memphis Depay, Ronald Araujo, Sergi Roberto and Andreas Christensen also remain unavailable.
Pablo Torre makes the cut as usual and could be in line for some minutes against Viktoria Plzen. Barcelona B prospects Marc Casado, Alvaro Sanz, Ilias Akhomach and Alex Valle have also been called up by Xavi.
𝐒𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 31, 2022
#ViktoriaBarça pic.twitter.com/fV4qk1vQRA
