Barcelona will travel to Borussia Moenchengladbach for their UEFA Champions League encounter. The match is scheduled to take place in Germany at the Borussia-Park stadium on Wednesday.
Barca will be without their talismanic forward Lionel Messi. Leo has been sidelined for three weeks with a groin injury. Thus, the Spanish giants will have to cope without the services of Messi in the upcoming match.
Neymar, Luis Suarez are both in fine form according to Barca boss Luis Enrique. Thus, Barcelona have enough firepower to plug the gap left by the Argentine maestro.
He said: “I have different kinds of players and that gives me a lot of options. Depending on who we are playing and the players I have available, I will pick the ones that I think are right for the situation. To lose Messi means that football loses. With Messi, we are stronger, but we will continue being strong.”
Luis Enrique rested several players in their last La Liga outing on Saturday, including Ivan Rakitic, Andres Iniesta, Jordi Alba and Javier Mascherano. So one can expect Barca to field a decent playing XI regardless Messi’s unavailability.
For Barca custodian, Marc-Andre Ter-Stegen it will certainly be an emotional return to the club he left in 2014.
He said: “I had a fantastic time there and played for the club my entire career apart for the last two years. Borussia are my old love and that will remain so but I identify with Barca 100 percent and on the pitch there is only one club for me.”
– with Reuters input
