Spanish clubs competing in Europe boast of an advantage over their rivals ahead of the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals as the league match day has been postponed in light of the Copa del Rey final.
Barcelona, thus, enjoy over a week off since their last clash and ahead of the critical game against PSG at Parc des Princes.
Rested and refreshed with the unexpected break, Xavi hopes that his side can deliver a statement performance in the first leg and take home an advantage.
Yet, there was doubt over the situation of the youth players. After all, they could either be rested in light of the PSG game, or sent back to reinforce Barça Atletic for the game against Arenteiro.
Four players rested
Two subsidiary team stars, Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal, were obvious choices to continue with the first-team schedule for the weekend for they are practically regular members in Xavi’s dynamics.
Apart from the dynamic duo, the Barcelona manager also opted to retain, and thus provide rest, to Marc Guiu and Hector Fort, both of whom will not play for Barça Atletic against Arenteiro, as revealed by SPORT.
Both players will enjoy rest on Sunday ahead of the game against PSG so as to be in the best possible physical condition.
The duo are expected to start on the bench, but while Fort will be the manager’s first-choice backup at left-back, Guiu will serve as a third-choice striker after Robert Lewandowski and Vitor Roque.
The player sent back
While Xavi did opt to keep his more regularly used members of the academy in his loop, young midfielder Marc Casado did not enjoy that luxury.
As a player who has been lesser utilised this season despite being called up, the youngster has been sent back to Rafa Marquez’s side to help with the critical game against Arenteiro.
The 20-year-old made his La Liga debut recently against Atletico Madrid, but the surplus of resources in the midfield leaves little room for him to have a role in the UCL game.
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