Barcelona are hoping to end their Champions League group stage campaign on a high when they take on Royal Antwerp on Wednesday. Xavi Hernandez’s side have basically secured top spot in Group H, which means that significant changes are likely to be made from Sunday’s defeat to Girona.
Initially, Xavi opted against calling upon Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong, Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski for the match, although the decision has now been made for three of the four (de Jong is absent due to sickness) to travel to Antwerp. However, at least in the case of Araujo, he is very unlikely to play any part.
This is because he, as well as Joao Felix, are on two yellow cards in this season’s Champions League, as per MD. If either were to be booked against Antwerp, they would miss Barcelona’s next match in the competition, which would be the first leg of their last 16 tie.
Xavi will be desperate to have all of his Barcelona players available for the start of the knockout stages in February, so it would be a major surprise if either Araujo of Felix played. It remains to be seen if that proves to be the case.
