{"id":642852,"date":"2026-03-09T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642852\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T09:10:16","slug":"how-will-barcelona-line-up-against-newcastle-in-the-champions-league-round-of-16-1st-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642852\/","title":{"rendered":"How will Barcelona line up against Newcastle in the Champions League Round of 16 1st leg?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona travel to England for a massive European night as the Blaugrana face Newcastle in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie at St. James\u2019 Park.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Tuesday\u2019s battle:<\/p>\n

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Defense\"\"<\/p>\n

Flick was able to successfully rotate his team and still pick up a huge win away to Athletic Club at the weekend, so the coach will be able to pick his best available XI for this one.<\/p>\n

The incredible Joan Garcia<\/strong> will start in goal, and we think Eric Garcia<\/strong> will start at right-back and Pau Cubars\u00ed<\/strong> will be one of the two center-backs. The other two spots in the back four all depend on Ronald Araujo<\/strong>: if the Uruguayan does start, which is a good idea given the danger of Newcastle\u2019s set pieces, then Gerard Mart\u00edn<\/strong> and Jo\u00e3o Cancelo will compete for a spot at left-back.<\/p>\n

If Araujo remains on the bench, then Mart\u00edn will partner Cubars\u00ed with Cancelo on the left, but we think Flick will value Araujo\u2019s height and power and choose Mart\u00edn as a more defensive-minded left-back at least to start the game.<\/p>\n

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Midfield\"\"<\/p>\n

Marc Bernal<\/strong> and Pedri<\/strong> each played 45 minutes in Bilbao and will arrive in England relatively fresh, and given the form of both we think they\u2019ll start together in the double pivot. This is an away game in Europe that requires tons of energy, intensity and transition play, so we think Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez<\/strong> will be picked ahead of Dani Olmo in the number 10 role to start this one.<\/p>\n

Attack\"\"<\/p>\n

Marcus Rashford was the hero of Bar\u00e7a\u2019s first trip to Newcastle this season but has now embraced the role of super sub since the return of Raphinha<\/strong>, who will start on the left after getting a full hour of rest against Athletic. Lamine Yamal<\/strong> remains on fire and will start on the right looking to bring his magic to a huge European game on the road, and we think Robert Lewandowski<\/strong> will start up front ahead of the struggling Ferran Torres, bringing much-needed height and veteran leadership to a very difficult away test.<\/p>\n

Possible XI<\/strong>: Joan; Eric, Araujo, Cubars\u00ed, Mart\u00edn; Bernal, Pedri; Yamal, Ferm\u00edn, Raphinha; Lewandowski (4-2-3-1)<\/p>\n

How do you think Barcelona should line up against Newcastle? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona travel to England for a massive European night as the Blaugrana face Newcastle in the first leg…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":642853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[273481,1386,273482,83365,56242,5727,5728,47213,75871,1936,5729,54921,229826,7115,58841,3901,79794,4819,48735,71273,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-642852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-athletic-club-bilbao","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-travel-to-england","tag-dani-olmo","tag-eric-garcia","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-fermin-lopez","tag-ferran-torres","tag-gerard-martin","tag-getty-images","tag-hansi-flick","tag-joan-garcia","tag-joao-cancelo","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-marc-bernal","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-pedri","tag-raphinha","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-ronald-araujo","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116198442826315788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}