La Liga leaders Barcelona make the trip to Alaves on Sunday afternoon for their MD9 fixture – they will do so without the services of new signing Wojciech Szczesny, despite him being available to play after his registration was confirmed earlier this weekend.
Szczesny was not included in Barcelona’s matchday squad for Alaves, with Ander Astralaga and Aron Yaakobishvili being the two goalkeepers to accompany current number one Inaki Pena in making the trip to Vitoria. As per MD, Hansi Flick explained the omission during his pre-match press conference.
“He’s in very good shape, but unfortunately he won’t travel to Vitoria because I think he needs more time to be with us and after the break he’ll be ready and an option.
“For his experience, for his character and for his quality, having Szczesny is very good for the club. When I spoke to him I thought he was a very friendly person, he said that he would contribute in any way he could to the team and I was impressed. He will contribute a lot of things.”
It means that Szczesny’s first opportunity to start for Barcelona will be against Sevilla in two weeks’ time, and there’s no doubt that he will fancy his chances of taking the starting goalkeeping spot from Inaki Pena at the first time of asking.
Predicted Teams Alaves-Barcelona: Unchanged line-up planned by Hansi Flick
Real Madrid’s victory over Villarreal on Saturday has seen them draw level on points with Barcelona at the top of La Liga. The Catalans can re-establish their three-point lead on Sunday afternoon when they make the trip to Alaves for their MD9 fixture.
For head coach Hansi Flick, it will be a fairly simple turnaround from Tuesday’s victory over Young Boys. Sport say that an unchanged line-up will be fielded against Alaves, meaning that there is still no route into the starting XI for Ansu Fati, nor the returning Frenkie de Jong.
Alaves are set to make multiple changes from the side that lost to Getafe last weekend. Manu Sanchez and Santiago Mourino are set for a return in defence, while former Real Madrid midfielder and veteran striker Kike Garcia also among those in line for a recall to the starting line-up.
Mendizorroza is a very tough place to go, and Barcelona will not have it easy. They will be keen not to make the same mistake as they did against Osasuna last weekend, although Alaves will fancy their chances of upsetting the odds.
