Rafinha, rather than Pedro Rodriguez, is the man entrusted with the responsibility of replacing Neymar for Barcelona against Sevilla in tonight’s UEFA Super Cup.
The Spaniard had been expected to fill in for the Brazilian, who recently came down with a bout of mumps, but it is the youth product who gets the nod in his countryman’s absence.
Elsewhere for the Catalans, an injury to Jordi Alba sees Jeremy Mathieu enter the fold at left-back, while Marc-Andre ter Stegen is preferred to Claudio Bravo in goal.
Sevilla, on the other hand, give competitive debuts to summer signings Adil Rami and Michael Krohn-Dehli and pip for Kevin Gameiro over Ciro Immobile to take the place of the departed Carlos Bacca up top.
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Barcelona Ter Stegen; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Mathieu; Busquets, Iniesta, Rakitic; Messi, Suarez, Rafinha
Subs: Bravo, Pedro, Bartra, Sandro, Munir, Sergi Roberto, Adriano
Sevilla: Beto; Coke, Rami, Krychowiak, Tremoulinas; Banega, Krohn-Dehli, Iborra; Vitolo, Gameiro, Reyes
Subs: Rico, Immobile, Kakuta, Luismi, Denis Suarez, Konoplyanka, Mariano
Referee: Collum [SCO]
