“We are not conditioned by the match against Galatasaray. Even if we had won the first leg, the planning of the week would not have changed excessively,” said Xavi Hernández. The Egarenco coach, therefore, focuses exclusively on Sunday’s match against Osasuna, a rival “who can adopt different systems, who does not concede goals easily and who attacks with a lot of verticality”. Xavi does not talk about rotations and only values changes to the starting eleven “based on possible discomfort, fatigue or sanctions”, but never thinking about Turkey.
The big doubt is the power plants. After Osasuna and Galatasaray, Barça will play next Sunday at Real Madrid. And two central defenders, Araujo and Eric, are facing a penalty. Xavi, however, assures that he will not decide thinking about the classic but exclusively valuing football reasons. “I choose the central defenders based on their profiles and depending on the opponent. How we want to attack, the output of the ball … we will value it and decide.”
Alves and Gavi return to Barça’s squad
Barça recover Dani Alves and Gavi, absent on Thursday, for this match. Nico, on the other hand, is down due to the accumulation of cards. The injured Umtiti, Sergi Roberto and Ansu Fati cannot play either. In turn, Osasuna has all the available staff with the exception of Argentine striker Chimy Avila, who will also have to play a penalty game.
