Barcelona secured their third win of the La Liga season during the week when they defeated Villarreal 2-1. But the Catalan giants will rue the fact that star man Lionel Messi had to be substituted at half-time due to an injury.
Barcelona are currently four points behind league leaders Real Madrid, and will hope they can pick up another win and manage a bit of consistency after a poor start to the season.
Ahead of Barcelona’s game against Getafe, let’s take a look at the possible lineup that we could see:
Barcelona Team News
Messi is expected to miss Barcelona’s next game on Saturday night, and it remains to be seen how long he’ll be absent for.
Predicted Barcelona Lineup vs Getafe
Goalkeeper
Marc-André ter Stegen will start in goal for Barcelona, and the German will hope to keep his first cleansheet of the league this weekend.
Defence
In defence, the duo of Gerard Pique and Clément Lenglet will start at the back for the Catalans. Pique runs the risk of getting suspended for the next La Liga game against Sevilla as he is currently on 4 yellow cards in the season.
Nélson Semedo will continue at right-back, while summer signing Junior Firpo will get another start as Jordi Alba is still unavailable due to an injury, and isn’t expected to make the Barcelona lineup.
Midfield
Sergi Roberto, Sergio Busquets, and Arthur started in midfield against Villarreal, but there could be a change in the heart of the Barcelona team for the game against Getafe.
Roberto hasn’t offered much going forward or back, and we could see him make way for Frenkie de Jong in the starting XI. Arthur scored a wonderful goal against Villarreal, and has taken his tally to two goals this season.
Ivan Rakitic continues to be dropped by manager Ernesto Valverde and it seems like there’s no way back for him.
Attack
Lionel Messi made his first start of the season against Villarreal but had to be brought off at half-time due to a thigh injury, and he will not be fit for the game against Getafe.
Ousmane Dembélé replaced Messi at half-time against Villarreal and is expected to make the Barcelona lineup once again.
Antoine Griezmann, who scored in the mid-week win, will start on the left. The Frenchman has three goals and two assists for Barcelona in his debut season for the Catalan giants.
Luis Suarez will start as the striker for Barcelona, despite being booed by his own fans in the mid-week game.
