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CDM: Sergio Busquets
Against Espanyol, Sergio Busquets showed exactly why he’s so important to this Barcelona team despite his age and it won't be any different in the Champions League. Busquets was at the core of everything Barcelona did and his line-breaking passes proved to be too difficult for the opposition team to handle. He even set the wingers through on goal with a lobbed ball and controlled the tempo of the game well.
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Barcelona lost control of the match once Busquets was subbed off. This allowed Espanyol to get close to scoring and they ended up creating several chances as well. It goes without saying that Xavi will be counting on him in the Champions League.
Busquets has won three Champions League titles playing alongside Xavi at Barcelona and will know what his manager expects from him on the big stage.
CM: Nico Gonzalez
New Golden Boy award winner Pedri was expected to return for the game against Benfica but he ended up suffering an untimely relapse. In his absence, Nico Gonzalez is set to continue in midfield for Barcelona in the Champions League as well.
Hailing from Barcelona’s famed youth academy La Masia, Gonzalez is technically proficient. As a result, he’s quite comfortable receiving passes and holding on to possession between the lines.
Against Espanyol, Gonzalez was also important in connecting the left flank with the right flank. He would often drift towards the spaces on the left, receive the ball, then send one down quickly to Ilias or Abde on the right wing.
Gonzalez's combinations and layoffs with Ilias Akhomach on the edge of the box were also noticeable. Regardless of who starts on the right wing in the Champions League game against Benfica, he must look to do the same.
CM: Frenkie de Jong
Frenkie de Jong hasn’t had a big influence on the Barcelona team this season but his performance against Espanyol attracted a lot of praise. Xavi deployed De Jong as a box-to-box midfielder and we saw him in a hyper-active role.
In the Barcelona derby, the Dutchman constantly made his way into the final third and even made dummy runs into the box. Eric Garcia found him with threaded passes on multiple occasions and Busquets nearly exploited his runs with the help of lobbed balls.
De Jong’s decoy runs and positioning confused the opposition defenders and allowed him space to create chances in the box. He will look to do the same in the Champions League as well. Even without the ball, the Dutch midfielder often led the counter-press for Barcelona - against Espanyol, he made nine recoveries.
It goes without saying that De Jong has enough Champions League pedigree. He will be hoping to emulate his form from the thrilling campaign with Ajax in 2018-19 when made it to the semis of the Champions League.
