11/24/2020 14:00
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 11/24/2020 2:33 PM
Barcelona visits Dinamo Kiev in search of the triumph that classifies it in advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League
but will do so with an emergency formation, between the wave of injuries suffered and
the decision to give Lionel Messi rest
, who did not even travel to Ukraine.
The meeting, of the fourth date of group G of the European competition, will be played at 5:00 p.m. (Argentine time)
at the Olympic stadium in Kiev, with the refereeing of the Slovenian Matej Jug and
live televising on ESPN 2 (Channels 103 of Cablevisión and 623 of DirecTV)
.
Prior to the trip to Ukraine, coach Ronald Koeman announced that neither Lionel Messi nor Frenkie De Jong were part of the call, to give them both rest, which makes the assembly of the team that will visit Dynamo a real puzzle.
Lionel Messi will not be on Barcelona's visit to Dynamo Kiev.
Photo: AFP.
If they win in Kiev,
Barcelona will achieve an early qualification to the round of 16
, with two games still to be played in the group stage, although they will not only face the leader of the Ukrainian League but also their own problems.
Gerard Piqué and Sergio Roberto are the two casualties that Barcelona took from the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on Saturday
, in addition to the 1-0 defeat against Atlético de Madrid, in a complex panorama for the squad led by the Dutch Ronald Koeman in performance and in the availability of personnel for what is to come.
The two defenders join a wide list of injured,
among which Sergio Busquets and Ansu Fati also stand out
, two other starters who did not play in the fall against
Aleti
and will not be visiting the capital of Ukraine either.
Gerard Pique suffered an injury during the last league game and will not be here this afternoon either.
Photo: AFP.
Piqué had to leave the game against the mattress team with a sprain in the lateral ligament and partial rupture of the crusader of the right knee
, which he suffered in a collision against the Argentine Ángel Correa, who in a game action fell on the leg of the Catalan defender and it produced the torsion that led to the serious injury that, a priori, will take him away from the courts for about five months.
Sergi Roberto, meanwhile, will be out of the field
for
approximately two months
due to a muscle tear in the rectus femoris of the right thigh that he also suffered in the last match of the Spanish League.
Busquets is recovering from a sprain of the external lateral ligament in his left knee
that he suffered in the match of the Spanish team against Switzerland, played on November 14 by the UEFA Nations League, for which he has no less than an extra week of rehabilitation .
And Ansu Fati has just started the recovery process due to the tear of the internal meniscus of the left knee
that was diagnosed after the match in which Barça beat Betis 5 to 2, on the ninth date of the League.
Barcelona already has one foot in the round of 16.
Photo: Reuters.
The extensive injured list, with four undisputed starters on it,
puts coach Koeman in a situation of high difficulty for the assembly of the team
that brings to Kiev its ideal score in the group stage of the Champions League, with three wins in the same number of presentations.
It is expected that Sergiño Dest will be the one who replaces Sergi Roberto on the right side and that Oscar Mingueza, player of the subsidiary called up for the trip, will be the companion of Lenglet in the rear.
In the double pivot, there are different options.
In practically all of them, without Busquets or De Jong, Miralem Pjanic starts as a permanent starter.
For the other position, Koeman could opt for Aleñá or Riqui Puig or perhaps reserve them for one of the more advanced positions.
Up front, in Kiev it could be a good day for Griezmann and Coutinho to vindicate themselves.
In the other two positions, Trincao and Pedri could have options, even Riqui Puig.
Antoine Griezmann will lead Barcelona's attack.
Photo: AFP.
Barcelona has played eleven games at the start of the season, in which they won six
;
but half of those successes were achieved in the same number of matches played in the Champions League, when
in the Spanish League he already accumulates three defeats
, in an unusual campaign that has him in the middle of the table.
The most worrying thing is the performance of a low-flying team with little replacement, whose
perspective in the Champions League is not optimistic when it must face the crosses from the second round
, taking almost for granted that it will achieve the classification in its group.
This Tuesday he will visit a rival who will probably face his last chance to straighten out his course in group G, in which he only obtained one point as a result of the tie achieved in the visit to Ferencvaros in Hungary.
Dynamo Kiev goes in search of the hit.
Photo: EFE / Enric Fontcuberta.
Dynamo Kiev
will not have their best players available either, as they receive Barça depleted by the coronavirus, although with fewer casualties in the starting eleven than in the match played three weeks ago at the Camp Nou.
Regarding the meeting in Catalan soil, the Ukrainians have recovered starting defenders such as central Mykolenko and full-back Karaváev, as well as midfielders such as Garmash and Shaparenko.
It was precisely Garmash and Shaparenko who were the scorers in Dinamo's victory on Saturday at the home of modest Inhulets Petrove (2-0).
Dinamo Kiev is looking for its first Champions League win.
Photo: EFE.
This victory allowed them to reinforce the leadership in the championship, even more so when the second classified, Shakhtar Donetsk, drew at home against Oleksandria (1 to 1).
Of course, Dinamo could not have ten players due to coronavirus, among which are two mainstays of the team such as Sergei Sidorchuk and Víctor Tsigankov, who scored three weeks ago against the Blaugrana team.
They were also unable to take the field on Saturday and, predictably, they will not do so on Tuesday against the Catalan team due to coronavirus, several regulars in the rotation such as Popov, Gerson Rodrígues, Shabánov and Andriyevski, who played all the game played in Barcelona.
Dynamo Kiev suffers many losses in its payroll due to coronavirus.
Photo: EFE.
This leaves the team led by Romanian Mircea Lucesu with almost no substitutes on the bench.
The Ukrainian team cannot count on Covid-19 with the third goalkeeper, Ruslán Nescheret, who made a great impression in the first leg, although the starter, Buschan, is already recovered and it was the Saturday of the game.
The coronavirus, which has already claimed more than 10,000 lives in Ukraine, became a real problem for Dinamo, since, according to the press,
the Lucescu coach is also considering leaving the team in winter if the pandemic does not subside
.
Possible formations
Dynamo of Kiev
: Georgi Bushchan;
Tomasz Kedziora, Illia Zabarnyi, Vitaly Mykolenko, Oleksandr Karavaev;
Volodymyr Shepelev, Denys Harmash;
Mykola Shaparenko, Vitaly Buyalskyi, Carlos De Pena;
Vladyslav Supriaha.
DT
: Mircea Lucescu.
Barcelona
: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen;
Serginho Dest, Clément Lenglet, Oscar Mingueza, Jordi Alba;
Miralem Pjanic, Carles Alena;
Philippe Coutinho, Pedri, Trincao;
Antoine Griezmann.
DT
: Ronald Koeman.
Time
: 17 (from Argentina).
TV
: ESPN 2.
Referee
: Matej Jug (Slovenia).
Stadium
: Kiev Olympic.
