Lionel Messi suffered a thigh injury in Barcelona’s 2-2 draw against Valencia and Ernesto Valverde admitted they will wait until the last minute to decide if the Argentina international will face Real Madrid on Wednesday.
The two Spanish giants will face each other in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final clash at the Camp Nou and we take a look at how the Spanish newspapers have predicted the two teams will line up for the fixture.
We start with the predicted Barcelona lineup given by Catalan newspapers Mundo Deportivo and Sport as they believe Valverde will go with 4-3-3 formation.
Both have predicted Marc-André ter Stegen to start ahead of Jasper Cillessen, with centre-back partnership of Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet and Jordi Alba at left-back.
In the right-back position, Mundo predicts Nélson Semedo to start, while Sport have gone ahead with Sergio Roberto.
No surprises in the midfield as the two newspapers have predicted Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Arthur to start against the Champions League winners.
It’s the same in attack with the front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho.
The only difference between Mundo and Sport’s predicted line up in the right-back position.
Moving on to Real Madrid, Marca have predicted Santiago Solari to go ahead with a 4-3-3 formation against the La Liga winners.
They have gone with a strong lineup that includes Keylor Navas as the goalkeeper, with a back four of Dani Carvajal, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo. Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos will be the midfield.
Vinícius Júnior and Lucas Vázquez will support Karim Benzema to lead Los Blancos’ attack.
The last time these two sides faced each other, Barcelona registered a crushing 5-1 victory over Real Madrid.
