Galatasaray players attend a training session ahead of the UEFA Europa League round of 16 match against Barcelona at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain on march 9, 2022. (Photo by Senhan Bolelli/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Barcelona will look for their fifth consecutive win of the season
After getting past Napoli, Barcelona now take on Galatasaray in the Europa League round of 16 at the Camp Nou.
The Catalans are searching for their fifth consecutive win of the season but will need to get past a Galatasaray side with some familiar faces.
Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez is set to rotate his side and give some players a break.
Expect Memphis Depay, who scored the winning penalty against Elche, to start. With Gavi serving a suspension, Nico Gonzalez may get a start in midfield for Sergio Busquets. In any respect, Xavi has some options to choose from.
Given their stature and their display against Napoli, some may see Barcelona as favorites to win the competition. However, Xavi doesn’t see things that way.
“”I don’t see us as favorites. We don’t know the competition. We’ve never won the title,” Xavi said. “I think the favorites should be the last champions. Sevilla, for instance, are much more favorites than us. Without a doubt. We are candidates to win.”
Source: Marca
Galatasaray are mired in the middle of the table in the Turkish league. Former Barcelona player Arda Turan has been exiled from the team and is not expected to feature. Iñaki Peña, on the other hand, could see some minutes against his parent team.
The former third keeper left on loan to get more playing time and will undoubtedly have something to prove.
Despite Xavi trying to play down the “favorite” tag, there’s no way of getting past it. The talent discrepancy between the two sides is apparent. Even more so now given the improvement of Barcelona since he took over.
With the first leg at home, Barcelona will want to put the game out of reach when all is said and done. Against Napoli, they created a number of chances but failed to take advantage. They’ll try to remedy that this time around and hope the second leg in Turkey is a simple formality.
