Reigning Copa del Rey champions Barcelona will embark on their title defense this Wednesday when they travel to face Second Division side Villanovense.
Luis Enrique’s crew will roll in at the Estadio Romero Cuerda and will face off with the team from Extremadura for the very first time in history.
The Catalan giants will head into the midweek encounter on the back of Saturday’s 3-1 comeback win against Eibar at Camp Nou, a victory which saw the Blaugrana stretch their winning streak to three games since the end of the international break.
Barcelona’s hat-trick hero in their weekend victory, Luis Suarez, will miss their Copa del Rey opener, however, alongside fellow South American attacker Neymar.
The club’s Asturian manager looks to take advantage of the relatively easy fixture to hand rest to key players, with only two Spanish Primera Division matches and a Champions League encounter remaining before November 21st’s highly-anticipated El Clasico.
Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Claudio Bravo, and Javier Mascherano are a few other first-team players who will sit out Wednesday’s game. In fact, according to Enrique, more Barcelona B players would have been called up if permitted by Cup regulations.
"We are limited in the number of Barça B players that we can use. I would like more players to rest, but that's what the rule is and it has to be followed," said the Barca tactician.
Figures show that several first-team players are in dire need of rest
Infographic: Minutes played for Barcelona on 25 October, this season and last season #fcblive [sport] pic.twitter.com/44AAFz5CY4
— barcastuff (@barcastuff) October 28, 2015
Other players set to miss out on the trip to Villanovense are Sergi Roberto, Rafinha, Andres Iniesta, and star striker Lionel Messi, who faces a race against time to be fit for the trip to Santiago Bernabeu.
DID YOU KNOW?
Barcelona have won their last 9 Copa del Rey matches, scoring at least 3 goals in 8 of those 9 games.
Villanovense have lost only once in their last 5 fixtures.
Team sheets for Villanovense vs Barcelona
Villanovense's lineup: Fuentes, Trinidad, Súper, Sánchez, Cubi, Pajuelo, Tapia, Anxo, Moraga, Juanfran, Casi.
Barcelona's lineup: Masip, Douglas, Bartra, Munir, Sandro, Adriano, Vermaelen, Mathieu, Samper, Gumbau, Kaptoum.
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