Barça is obliged this Saturday against Elche to take another step on their way to the title. The azulgrana team will play at the Martínez Valero against the bottom team, who has a new coach, the Argentine Sebastián Beccacece, and the leader will have to overcome the absence of five key players in Xavi’s team. Pedri, Dembélé, Christensen and Frenkie de Jong miss the appointment due to injury and Raphinha will not be able to be there either, sanctioned. It is the hour to evaluate the bottom of cupboard of the culés.
«We have enough footballers without good feelings. Now Frenkie de Jong and Andreas Christensen are also injured, so we will try to get them back for the next games (the next one will be on Wednesday, against Madrid in the second leg of the Cup semifinals), but it will depend on their feelings,” lamented the Barça coach. this Friday. The Catalan coach faces the return to competition with the uncertainty of seeing how his players are suffering from the workload and with the need for the secondary players to step forward again with the aim of maintaining the 12-point advantage they have about Real Madrid.
Ronald Araujo may finally be able to play against Elche, after overcoming the physical problems he was suffering from, but the absences at Barça will condition an eleven in which Xavi once again settles between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3. The first formula would fit Kessié and Sergi Roberto as companions of the regulars Busquets and Gavi, while the second could serve to give a new opportunity in attack to Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati, a player who has lived a turbulent week after his father will complain about the lack of minutes available to him. “Ansu worries me, not his father or his family. He is participating and it will become more and more important. I ask for patience,” Xavi said about it.
In front will be a rival who has barely added 13 points out of the first 78 in play and has taken advantage of the break to change coaches. Beccacece lands at the Martínez Valero with a daring game model and knowing that his team needs a mental injection like the one that winning an entire Barcelona team would entail in front of their fans to begin to believe in the miracle of salvation.
Probable lineups:
Elche: Badía, Palacios, Verdú, Bigas, Carmona, Gumbau, Mascarell, Clerc, Pere Milla, Ponce and Fidel.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Koundé, Marcos Alonso, Jordi Alba, Kessié, Busquets, Gavi, Ferran Torres, Lewandowski and Ansu Fati.
Referee: Del Cerro Grande (Madrid).
Stadium and schedule: Martínez Valero. 9:00 p.m. (Movistar LaLiga).