Barcelona To Face Inter Without Messi

La Liga Champions FC Barcelona will take on Inter Milan at Stadio Guezzepe Piazza in Milan in their last group stage match of the UEFA Champions League in Group F on Tuesday without Argentine forward Lionel Messi.

The Blaugrana have already qualified for the Round of 16 of the competition with the last match to spare but Inter Milan has to get a win and hope German Clubside, Borussia Dortmund fail to beat Czech side Viktoria Plzen in their own game at home at the Signal Iduna Park.

While Barcelona cannot be upstaged with 11 points from 5 games, Dortmund and Inter are tied with 7 points with the Italians on second With a superior goal difference compared to the Germans. Plzen are rock bottom with just 2 points garnered over five matches and can’t get into the Europa League even if they get to record a shocking result against Dortmund.

Coach Ernesto Valverde left out Lionel Messi, Sergi Roberto and Gerard Pique in addition to Ousmane Dembele, Nelson Semedo, Arthur and Jordi Alba who are all out on injuries.

However, in the 20-man list for the match by Barcelona are Goalkeeper, Marc Andre Ter-Stegen, Ivan Rakitic, Todibo, Sergio, Luis Suarez, Neto, Lenglet, Antoine Greizmann, Alena and Moussa Wague.

Also included are Vidal, Inaki Pena, Junior, Samuel Umtiti, Ansu Fati, Frankie De Jong, Morer, Araujo, Riqui Puig Junior, C Perez and Morer.

Meanwhile, this will keep the star players of the team refreshed ahead of weekend’s La Liga tie against Real Sociedad away from home and the El Clasico next Wednesday against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona leads the La Liga with goals difference as they are tied with 34 points from 15 round of games where they have had 11 wins 1 draw and three losses.

Inter Milan are highly fancied at 1.60 to defeat Barcelona, while Barce are set at 5.38.

Written by: Idowu Daniel Ademiju