Barcelona to be without eight first-team players for Champions League match against Antwerp - Football News
In a setback, Spanish LaLiga football club Barcelona will be without eight first-team players for their last Champions League group stage match against Antwerp in Belgium. The match is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, December 13. The decision comes after a shocking 4-2 defeat against LaLiga leader Girona on Sunday (Dec. 10).
Among the players who will be missing the UCL match, Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong, Ilkay Gündogan and Ronald Araújo will be rested. Marc-André ter Stegen, Marcos Alonso, Iñigo Martínez and Gavi, on the other hand, will be out due to injury as coach Xavi sets focus on Saturday's (Dec. 16) La Liga game at Valencia.
The loss against Girona was only the second for Barcelona this season in LaLiga and they now stand fourth on the table with 34 points — seven short of topper Girona — after 16 matches.
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The Barca coach, however, said that the club's performance wasn't as bad as the result showed. He acknowledged that the result was disastrous.
«It is a disastrous result, but the performance was not disastrous,» Xavi said in the news conference after the defeat.
«It's a big blow because we were hoping to get back within two points of the leaders.
»This is the reality. It's a Barça side in construction. These things happen when you are building, taking a step back to hopefully take two forward.
«Today, things didn't come off for us, but on another day they could have. We can't have any doubts. It was not a bad performance. Last year we also faced setbacks, but we went on to win two trophies.»
Eight academy players, meanwhile, have been called to play in the UCL match against Antwerp,
