Viktoria Pilsen examines Barça’s second unit

Barça has this Tuesday in the Czech Republic one of those games that bother the calendar. The team led by Xavi Hernández faces Viktoria Pilsen on the last day of the Champions League group stage with nothing at stake, beyond money, but with the possibility of putting the second unit to the test. Xavi will rehearse an eleven with many novelties in which Sergio Busquets will not be, due to suspension, nor Robert Lewandowski, who has stayed in Barcelona to rest, with the obligation to achieve a victory that retouches the Barça image this season in Europe.

«It is an inconsequential match for the classification but important for prestige. Some youngsters can play and have the opportunity to show their level. We’ll see if the situation arises for them to make their debut, they’re ready », assured Xavi at the press conference prior to his team’s duel against Viktoria Pilsen. The Tarrasa coach is aware that it is not the most important commitment of the season, but he knows that a victory in Europe could serve to make up a group stage that has not gone as well as expected at Can Barça.

Barcelona’s main objective for this match is none other than to secure the 2.8 million euros that UEFA awards to each club for a win. That award is the most important for the culé entity, but not the only one. Xavi has taken the duel as a test for the squad and is preparing a great revolution in the eleven so that less usual players such as Bellerín, Piqué, Kessié, Ferran Torres or youth players who have entered the squad such as Marc Casadó, Pablo Torre, Álex Valle, Álvaro Sanz, Ilias Akhomach and Arnau Tenas have an opportunity to convince the Tarrasa coach and take a step forward in the team’s gear.

For this last Champions League match for Barça this season, Xavi will have to make bobbin lace at the back. Jules Kounde and Eric García, two players who had to retire due to muscular overload in the match against Valencia this weekend, have joined the casualties due to injury to Sergi Roberto, Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen. All these absences and that of Memphis Depay, who is still in the final stretch of his recovery, will condition an eleven in which Bellerín will return to the right-back and in which Piqué and Marcos Alonso could form a practically unusual defense. It will not be the only line with news. Kessié and Gavi will return to midfield and Ferran Torres could have an opportunity as a false nine to replace Lewandowski.

An affordable rival

Viktoria Pilsen has undergone one of the worst group stages in the history of the Champions League. The team led by Michal Bílek was framed in the group of death and has paid dearly for it. He has zero points and has received a whopping 20 goals in just five games, a background that shows the abysmal difference that exists between the Czech team and the rest of the teams that make up their group.

Despite this, it can be said that Viktoria Pilsen arrive at the match in a great moment. Bílek’s men have won four in a row in the Fortuna Liga and have not lost in the domestic competition since they did it in October last year against Slavia Prague. That great moment and the fact of living the last Champions League party at home against Barcelona is the main danger of a team that does not play anything and that will play the match, yes, with the casualties of Kliment, Reznik, Sykora and Tijani , due to injury, and Mosquera due to accumulation of warnings.