Confirmed Barcelona XI vs Slavia Prague: Double change from Valverde, these fans delighted with key decisions

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Barcelona face Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday night and unsurprisingly, coach Ernesto Valverde has named a strong starting XI.

The Catalan giants start the night in second place in Group F, level on points with group leaders Borussia Dortmund who face Inter.

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In turn, Valverde will know the importance of claiming maximum points in their back-to-back clashes with Slavia, as that should put them in a dominant position to advance with their two biggest rivals potentially cancelling each other out.

With that in mind, there is no rotation from Barcelona as their big guns are all in action from the start with Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi leading the charge up front.

However, the reigning La Liga champions have made two changes to their line-up from the one that beat Eibar at the weekend, with injured duo Sergi Roberto and Samuel Umtiti dropping out as Nelson Semedo and Gerard Pique come in to replace them.

That aside, it’s as expected for the most part although perhaps certain individuals will be disappointed to be named on the bench.

As seen in the tweets below from some Barcelona fans, the decision to start Arthur and Frenkie de Jong appeared to delight them in particular, as with their technical quality and creativity in midfield, Barcelona will hope to dictate the tempo of the game and dominate, and importantly come away with all three points.

In contrast, despite playing such a key role for them in recent years, it appears as though the decision to leave Ivan Rakitic also went down well, although there was a less positive reaction to the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Arturo Vidal not getting the nod.

Valverde will hope that he has got it right, but if not, it would come as no surprise if the names above are introduced.

More Stories Ernesto Valverde Gerard Pique Nelson Semedo