How will Barcelona line up against Girona in their return to La Liga action?

The best team in Spain in the month of August looks to carry the momentum into their September-October schedule as Barcelona return from the first international break of the season for a huge stretch of games, starting with a monster local derby against Girona at the Montilivi Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Barça are top of the table four games into the season thanks to a perfect start that was capped off by a marvelous win over Valladolid, but the international window brought a few injury concerns and the Blaugrana usually struggle after their players go away with their nations for a fortnight, and on top of that they’ll face a Girona side that beat them twice in convincing fashion last season and are ready to make it three in a row against Catalonia’s biggest club.

Here’s how we think Hansi Flick will line up his troops for Sunday’s battle.

Defense

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Barça will play seven games in a span of 21 days between now and the next international break, with key Champions League and La Liga fixtures and an average of just three days of rest between them. Hansi Flick almost never had to deal with such congestion during his time at Bayern Munich, so the coach’s willingness and ability to rotate his side will be interesting to watch in the next three weeks.

But for the first game after the break, especially one of this importance, the starting XI picks itself and will be the strongest available which means Marc-André ter Stegen in goal and a back four of Jules Kounde, Pau Cubarsí, Iñigo Martínez and Alejandro Balde.

Midfield

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Barça’s midfield depth suffered yet another injury blow as Fermín López hurt his hamstring in Spain under-23 duty and will miss around three weeks, though the injury isn’t believed to be serious and his absence will serve more as a precautionary measure to prevent a bigger problem.

But that still means three weeks of almost non-existent midfield depth, which is especially concerning considering Pedri’s injury history and current importance to the team. He’ll start on Sunday alongside Marc Casadó and Dani Olmo — who is dealing with a knock of his own while in Spain duty — and all three must be watched very carefully, with only Eric García and Pablo Torre available as cover on the bench.

Attack

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Barça’s thin bench will have an extra attacking option available soon with Ansu Fati close to making his return to the side after suffering a foot injury in preseason, but he won’t be quite ready for this one. His introduction into the side will be interesting to watch once he’s ready, but it’s impossible for him or anyone else to touch the current forward trio.

Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha look unstoppable together and are all benefitting from the freedom of Flick’s system, and although Lewandowski had a bit of an injury scare while in Poland duty it appears he will be ready to start this one, while Yamal got 45 minutes of rest in Spain’s last game (which is better than nothing) and Raphinha got to chill for two weeks as he wasn’t called up by Brazil due to suspension and should be more than ready to go thanks to the extra rest.

Possible XI: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; Casadó, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski (4-2-3-1)

How do you think Barcelona should line up against Girona? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and teams in the comments below!