Barcelona kick off their Champions League knockouts campaign in two weeks’ time when they travel to take on Napoli in the first leg of their last 16 tie. The competition could well be their only realistic chance of silverware this season, given that they are out of the Copa del Rey, and are eight points behind Real Madrid in the La Liga title race.
As per UEFA rules, clubs are allowed to make three changes to their squads from the group stages, and given that they only added Vitor Roque during the winter transfer window, Barcelona have been somewhat hard-pressed to do all of these alterations.
Gavi and Alejandro Balde have likely been excluded from the squad as they are both out for the rest of the season. Roque has been added, while Sport say that head coach Xavi Hernandez has opted to include Pau Cubarsi and Unai Hernandez in the A list section of Barcelona’s squad for the knockout stages.
Cubarsi was on the B list for the group stages, and was on the bench for matches against Shakhtar Donetsk. He has since become an important member of the Barcelona first team, hence why the decision has been taken to upgrade him.
