Barcelona predicted lineup vs Inter - Champions League
Barcelona welcome last season's Serie A runners-up Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
The Catalans have won all five of their home meetings with Inter in the competition, keeping four clean sheets in the process. However, some of those victories were more hollow than others - as Xavi will be well aware of.
Barcelona's former captain was in the team that defeated Jose Mourinho's Inter 1-0 in the 2009 Champions League semi-finals but bowed out of the competition on aggregate. The Camp Nou sprinklers were coincidentally turned on while Mourinho and co celebrated on the pitch.
Here's the XI Xavi may deploy from the dugout to earn a victory which would be far more warmly received.
1. Barcelona XI (4-3-3)
GK: Marc-Andre ter Stegen - The royally in-form shot-stopper was feeling his lower back against Celta Vigo but is expected (and desperately needed) to be fit for midweek.
RB: Sergi Roberto - The Masia-trained midfielder destined to never fulfil his favoured position may be called upon at right-back once again.
CB: Gerard Pique - The veteran centre-back scored against Inter at Camp Nou in 2009, converting an effort teed up by his current manager, Xavi.
CB: Eric Garcia - Xavi revealed that Garcia had been managing some slight discomfort ahead of the weekend's La Liga duties. However, his return to fitness should ensure that Barcelona avoid lining up with three left-backs in their back-four again.
LB: Marcos Alonso - During his final full season in Serie A with Fiorentina, Alonso played all 180 minutes as La Viola defeated Inter home and away.
CM: Pedri - At San Siro Pedri had a goal rightly chalked off but the slippery midfielder was the only player that troubled the scoresheet against Celta on Sunday.
CM: Sergio Busquets - Spain's World Cup-winning manager Vicente del Bosque once memorably said: “You watch the whole game, you don’t see Busquets. You watch Busquets, you see the whole game.”
CM: Gavi - Five different players to feature in the Champions League this season are older than Gavi and Pedri's combined age (37).
RW: Raphinha - The Brazilian was so enraged at the referee who waved away his penalty appeal against Celta that he had to be calmed down in the dressing room at half-time. Perhaps he can harness that bubbling rage to get the first Champions League goal or assist of his career.
ST: Robert Lewandowski - Only Lionel Messi (127) and Cristiano Ronaldo (140) have scored more Champions League goals than the insatiable Pole (89) - although Lewandowski has found the net at a better rate (0.82 goals per game) than either of that famous pair.
LW: Ousmane Dembele - In half as many starts, Dembele has already scored as many goals (two) as he could muster across the entirety of last season.