Josep Guardiola has called up all available first team players, plus Thiago, Oier and Dos Santos for Tuesday's game against Shakhtar, in the second leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
List of players
The list of players selected by Josep Guardiola is as follows: Valdes, Oier, Pinto, Villa, Xavi,
Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Maxwell, Pedro, Afellay, Messi, Adriano, Alves, Keita, Mascherano, Milito,
Jeffren Fontàs, Thiago, and Dos Santos.
Despite the 5-1 win in the first leg of this Champions League quarterfinal, and as he said in the
press conference after the game at the Camp Nou against Shakhtar Donetsk, Guardiola doesn’t
believe the tie is won already. It’s for this reason, despite being only a few days away from
the “classic” in Madrid on Saturday, that he’s decided to travel with all first
team players available, as well as reinforcements from the B Team.
Valdes and Busquets return; Dos Santos the novelty
The differences in this squad from the last one against Almeria, are the return of
Victor Valdes and Sergio Busquets, who didn’t play on Saturday due to suspension, as well as
the young player from Barça B, Jonathan Dos Santos.
Travelling with 3 goalkeepers, but without Iniesta
The absentees are the injured Puyol and Bojan, who on Saturday suffered
a partial rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that will keep him sidelined
for between six to eight weeks, plus Abidal, and also Iniesta, suspended for accumulation of yellow
cards. Barça will travel with three goalkeepers - Valdes, Pinto and Oier probably because Pinto,
despite playing against Almeria, is still suffering with his left ankle sprain.
Recovery work for last night’s team
As usual the day after a game, the players who played against Almeria
completed a light recovery session at the Joan Gamper training ground, to help them recover from
last night’s effort. Puyol, Abidal and Bojan, meanwhile, received treatment. In addition,
nine reserve team players took part in the training session: Thiago Oier, Miño, Saul, Tello,
Planas, Benja, Ilie and Armando.