FCBARCELONA.CAT

05.01.2009 12:57

Rotations for the Cup

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The squad for this Tuesday’s Cup clash away at Atlético Madrid is pretty different to the one for Barça’s last League fixture with Mallorca. Seven of that game’s starters will not be travelling to Madrid.

Jorquera, Cáceres, Piqué, Pedro and Messi are the five new faces in a squad limited to 16 players as it is for a King’s Cup tie. Josep Guardiola has thus decided to rotate his players for the Atlético Madrid game by resting Valdés, Xavi, Gudjohnsen and Eto’o from Saturday’s starting XI, while he is also missing Puyol, Márquez and Hleb due to injury.

Puyol, Márquez and Hleb sidelined

Club captain Puyol has flu and a temperature, while the Mexican has a slight thigh strain and is being left out as a precaution.

Meanwhile Hleb is still feeling the effects of a blow to his right ankle received against Mallorca, so he will not be travelling to Madrid either.

Session at La Masia

Two of the three did make it to this Monday morning’s training session at La Masia. Márquez did tempo running on his own while Hleb trained with the rest of his team-mates.