Philippe Coutinho starts for Barcelona but Ousmane Dembele is benched against a full-strength Atletico Madrid this afternoon.

Coutinho replaces Aleix Vidal on the right wing as Ernesto Valverde sticks with the 4-4-2 that has served Barca so well this season.

Elsewhere for the Catalans, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba are back in defence, while Paulinho makes way for Ivan Rakitic in the middle.

Atleti, on the other hand, can no longer call on Carrasco and Nicolas Gaitan, both of whom joined Chinese side Dalian Yifang earlier in the week.

Axel Werner has also been promoted to Jan Oblak’s backup in goal after Miguel Angel Moya was sold to Real Sociedad.

Valverde has never beaten Los Rojiblancos in his managerial career, although Barca have not lost to Cholo’s men in the League since February 2010.

The match has been billed as a potential title decider, although it has been overshadowed by the sudden death of Fiorentina captain Davide Astori, with both clubs tweeting their condolences.

Follow the action as it happens at Camp Nou with out new-look liveblog from 15:00 GMT/16:00 local time!

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta; Coutinho; Messi, Suarez

Subs: Dembele, Cillessen, Paulinho, Alcacer, Digne, Gomes, Vermaelen

Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Vrsaljko, Gimenez, Godin, Filipe Luis; Saul, Thomas, Gabi, Koke; Costa, Griezmann

Subs: Werner, Lucas, Juanfran, Vitolo, Torres, Correa, Gameiro

Referee: Gil Manzano

La Liga - Club News