In a bit of duality between the two Champions League fixtures, FC Barcelona are missing close to the same number of starters that Dynamo Kyiv were when they met a few weeks ago.
Barcelona are without Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets, Ronald Araújo and Samuel Umtiti, all to injury. Ronald Koeman also elected not to bring Lionel Messi or Frenkie de Jong, one of which flew halfway across the world twice in the last two months and the other who played three matches over the international window for the Netherlands.
So who is left? Fortunately, Ousmane Dembélé may have a sore shoulder after his fall against Atlético Madrid, but he is in the squad against Dynamo Kyiv. If he was able to make the trip, one would expect him to start. It feels like disrespect to Phillipe Coutinho or Antoine Griezmann (it isn’t), but Dembélé may need to be Barça’s best player to get a result.
Griezmann and Coutinho having big days at the office would help as well, and expect Pedri to complete the front four. There are other options – Ronald Koeman could easily opt for Trincão on the right and Dembélé on the left, but it’s more likely that the manager will keep as much continuity in the front four due to all the question marks behind them. Without Messi, it might make sense to start a more natural striker like Martin Braithwaite up top with Griezmann off his shoulder, but again, Koeman may not want to switch things up too much. Konrad de la Fuente most assuredly won’t start, but this should be the game where the 19-year-old American gets his FC Barcelona debut, regardless of the score.
With the forwards making some sense, now is the point where we descend into chaos. Expecting Koeman to stick with the 4-2-3-1, the positions we can fill with confidence are Miralem Pjanic in the double pivot, Jordi Alba, Clement Lenglet, and Sergiño Dest as three of the four on the backline, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen in net. It’s unlikely that Koeman would punish ter Stegen for his blunder in Madrid, but it’s not absurd to think that Neto could get a game to give the German a moment to clear his head.
With those spots all but locked in, this is where the decisions begin. Carles Aleñá is the favorite to partner Pjanic, but Koeman did answer a question this week indicating that Riqui Puig could get some time coming in the near future. It’s more likely those minutes come off the bench though. Partnering Lenglet is a bit more complicated than the double pivot. Junior Firpo may feel like a surprise playing as a centre-back, but the bigger surprise should be Òscar Mingueza. Mingueza would be playing at his natural position, but an out-of-position Junior still has a bit more cache at first team level than Mingueza, and that’s saying something.
Due to all the omissions, whichever players mentioned above who are not starting will be the substitutes. The only other subs making the trip are Matheus Fernandes and Iñaki Peña. Matheus has still not made his Barcelona debut, and with Aleñá and Puig in the squad, it’s unlikely that will change for the Brazilian.
The first time Mircea Lucescu’s side met Barcelona, they were without half of their team. This often galvanizes the remaining players with a desperation that is hard to manufacture by a speech, and Dynamo Kyiv played with that underdog fire. This time around, many of the regulars for Dynamo Kyiv have returned, with the exception of Gerson Rodrigues, who played the first time but is out due to the virus.
Without Busquets and de Jong, Lucescu’s side could see more of the ball, neutralizing some of the space that they had last time on counter-attacks. Viktor Tsygankov was apparently given a break over the weekend, and expect the 23-year-old to be the main protagonist again. 22-year-old playmaker Mykola Shaparenko is back, as well as much of the backline.
Now that the regular goalkeepers Georgiy Bushchan and Denys Boyko have returned to the top team in Ukraine, it may surprise Culers to know that the hero from the first match-up, 18-year-old Ruslan Neshcheret, has gone back to playing with the second team. At home, expect an entirely different Dynamo Kyiv side against a weakened Barcelona.
Expected Line-ups:
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): ter Stegen; Alba, Lenglet, Junior, Dest; Aleñá, Pjanic; Pedri, Coutinho, Dembélé; Griezmann
Dynamo (4-2-3-1): Bushchan; Karavaev, Popov, Zabarnyi, Kedziora; Garmash, Shepelev; Shaparenko, Buyalskyi, Tsygankov; Supryaga
Dan Hilton is an American journalist, broadcaster, and current Editor-in-Chief of BarcaBlog. Extensive work as a play-by-play broadcaster, producer behind the scenes, and quite average player in his younger years has given him a well-rounded and informative perspective on the sport. Alongside BarcaBlog founder Francesc, Dan started The Barcelona Podcast in 2017.
