FC Barcelona have advantage of home support in this fixture and they will come in full force to win so they can close the gap of 4 points between them and arch rival Real Madrid. After good performance against Atletico in cup Luis Enrique might rotate the squad in this liga match and give chances to Denis Suarez and Rakitic in midfield as their star midfielders Iniesta and Busquets are not given green light from medical staff yet. In defence, Aleix Vidal might sneak in after his good performances in previous games. At other flank, Lucas Digne is still recovering from injury, which will leave Lucho with two options, Jordi Alba and Mathieu.
On other side, Athletic Club are aslo pushing ahead to claim better position in table. They are just two points behind sixth-placed Villarreal and only four adrift of Atletico in fourth. But their past meetings against Catalan club at Camp Nou did not go well as Athletic are yet to win at Camp Nou since 2001. Manager Valverde is facing major injury problems in defence with plyers like Laporte and Eneko Boveda are out with minor injuries. However, in other area players are all fit to play so they might line up as follows.
Line ups :
FC Barcelona
Ter stegen,
Aleix Vidal, Pique, Umtiti, Alba;
Rakitic, Mascherano, Denis Suarez;
Messi, Suarez, Neymar.
Athletic Club:
Iraizoz;
de Marcos, San Jose, Etxeita, Balenziaga;
Munian, Benat;
Williams, Garcia, Susaeta;
Aduriz
Form:
FCB WWWDW
Ath Club DLDDW
Last meeting:
FC Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Bilbao – 11th January 2017 – Copa del Rey
