FC Barcelona Team News: Iniesta, Pique Rested; Neymar Injured In Training; Dani Alves Suspended

Defending champions and Group E leaders FC Barcelona travel to the Bay Arena on Wednesday night to take on German club Bayer Leverkusen in Matchday 6 of the UEFA Champions League.

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FC Barcelona come into fixture on the back of a 6-1 hammering of AS Roma in Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League. With 13 points from five matches, Luis Enrique’s men have already qualified for the final 16 of the tournament as the leader of their group.

Leverkusen, on the other hand, need a win against the Catalans to have any chance of qualifying for the knockouts. If AS Roma end up beating Bate Borisov at the Stadio Olympico in the other group match, Leverkusen will miss out on qualifying for the final 16.

Iniesta, Pique Rested; Neymar Injured In Training

In news coming in late last night, Brazilian superstar Neymar suffered a slight injury to his groin during training on Tuesday and is widely believed to be ruled out of tonight’s clash against Bayer. He is expected to be out for a period of 10 days. Neymar has been in the form of his life lately and will be sorely missed by Barcelona as they travel to Japan for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Club captain Andres Iniesta and centre-back Gerard Pique have not traveled with the squad to Germany as they have been a given a rest by Enrique following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Valencia. Dani Alves is suspended while Mathieu, Sergi Roberto, Douglas and Rafinha are all out due to injury.

Here is Barcelona’s 19-man squad for Leverkusen: Ter Stegen, Bravo, Masip, Rakitic, Sergio, SuA?rez, Messi, Neymar Jr, Mascherano, Bartra, Munir, Jordi Alba, Sandro, Adriano, Vermaelen, Samper, Gumbau, CA?mara and Kaptoum.

Speaking to the media ahead of his side’s match against Leverkusen, Enrique gave an injury update on the squad.

“I have to take into account all the situations,” Luis Enrique said (via ESPNFC). “There are players who I have rested, some have stayed [in Barcelona]. We can take some players from the youth side, and from there play with what we have. I take into account the games they have played, the minutes, whether they have been injured, or if they have made transatlantic voyages.”