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Barcelona name squad for second leg

Barcelona have released their travelling squad of 20 players for Thursday’s Europa League play-off second leg at Old Trafford.

The Catalans fly over to Manchester later today [Wednesday], with Xavi holding a press conference at Old Trafford from 18:15 GMT.

La Liga’s leaders will then train out on the pitch, just over 24 hours before the sides resume a tie which caught Europe’s imagination last week.

It finished 2-2 at the Nou Camp, as Erik ten Hag’s side recovered from Marcos Alonso’s opener to briefly lead thanks to Marcus Rashford’s superb strike and a Jules Kounde own goal. Raphinha equalised with 15 minutes to go to leave the two-legged meeting finely poised.

Barcelona to train on the Old Trafford pitch

The visitors are missing two key midfielders for this game, with 20-year-old Pedri ruled out with the hamstring issue he picked up during the first half of last week’s match.

His teenage companion Gavi also cannot play, as he picked up a third yellow card of the competition against United, meaning he is banned for one match.

Xavi has included club captain and former team-mate Sergio Busquets in the squad, however.

The 34-year-old, who is the only remaining member of the Barça sides which beat United in the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals, was an unused substitute during Sunday’s 2-0 win over Cadiz in the Spanish top-flight.

Busquets has been recovering from an ankle injury in recent weeks and it’s not yet clear how much of an involvement he will be able to have in M16.

Winger Ousmane Dembele is still out with a hamstring problem.

The only other change from last week’s 22-man squad is the absence of 18-year-old winger Angel Alarcon, who made his first-team debut against Ceuta in the Copa del Rey last month.

Sergio Busquets has made over 700 appearances for Barcelona since 2008.

BARCELONA SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Inaki Pena, Arnau Tenas.

Defenders: Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Jordi Alba, Jules Kounde, Eric Garcia, Alejandro Balde.

Midfielders: Sergio Busquets, Franck Kessie, Sergi Roberto, Frenkie De Jong, Marc Casado, Pablo Torre.

Forwards: Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Raphinha.

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