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With Joao Felix and Cancelo on the bench, Xavi chose this XI to face Osasuna

Barcelona are looking for a new victory in La Liga to get closer to Real Madrid.

By Darwin Largo

Barcelona are looking for a new victory in La Liga to get closer to Real Madrid.

After weeks of worrying about whether they would be able to resolve their financial fair play issues in time, Barcelona received good news on Friday, when they were finally able to register the last players in La Liga. They are Iñaki Peña and Iñigo Martinez, who were already on the squad but were cleared, and Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix.

 

The Portuguese players were the last signings to arrive in Catalonia, from Manchester City and Atlético Madrid, respectively. With them, Xavi Hernández was able to solve the squad's shortcomings once and for all. The coach needed a right-back and an attacking midfielder or forward to feel satisfied. And now that he has them, he decided to include them on the bench for this Sunday's match against Osasuna in Pamplona, even though they have only had one training session with their new teammates.

It will not be an easy match for Los Blaugranas. Osasuna had a good start to the season, with two wins (2-0 vs. Celta and 2-1 vs. Valencia) and one defeat, 2-0 against Athletic Bilbao. That is why they only have one point less than Barcelona and will try to beat them at El Sadar Stadium.

Osasuna coach Jagoba Arrasate's starting lineup will be: Aitor Fernández; Jesús Areso, Alejandro Catena, Jorge Herrando, Alvaro Armada, Pablo Ibáñez, Iker Muñoz, Aimar Oroz; Rubén García, Raúl García, José Amaiz. The XI that Xavi Hernandez chose for Barcelona is: Marc-André Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Jules Koundé, Andreas Christensen, Alex Balde; Frenkie De Jong, Oriol Romeu, Ilkay Gundogan, Gavi; Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski.

 

Xavi bets on youth

With the injury of Pedri and the departure of Ousmane Dembélé, the coach of Los Culés had to choose the players to accompany Lewandowski in attack. And he preferred Gavi (19) and Lamine Yamal (16) to more experienced forwards such as Raphinha and Ferran Torres.

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