Pick Your Barcelona Team To Face Sporting Gijon

Posted Saturday, January 30, 2010 by Goal.com

There’s been mixed fortunes for Pep Guardiola as he prepares his Barcelona side to travel to Gijon where they will face Sporting tomorrow night.

While the coach will be delighted to welcome back midfield duo Yaya Toure and Sergi Busquets, he will have to do without Brazilian full-back Dani Alves, who pulled a muscle in training yesterday.

With Seydou Keita suspended, Guardiola finds himself a little short in midfield but will have no major concerns as Barca go into Saturday’s match with pretty much a full squad.

With the return of Gaby Milito and Rafa Marquez from long-term injury, Barca find themselves spoilt for choice at centre-back while Pedro will hope his fine form will be enough to earn a place in the starting line-up.

Pep has called up 18 players for the trip to the El Molinon Stadium in Gijon.

Goalkeepers: Valdes, Pinto

Defenders: Chygrynskiy, Pique, Marquez, Milito, Puyol, Abidal, Maxwell,

Midfielders: Toure, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi,

Forwards: Messi, Pedro, Bojan, Henry, Ibrahimovic.

Please leave your ideal XI in the comments box below, using hyphens to separate positions working from left to right. For example, here is the team that could line-up in a 4-3-3 formation:

Valdes – Chygrynskiy – Puyol – Pique – Abidal – Busquets – Xavi – Iniesta – Pedro – Messi – Ibrahimovic