The absence of Leo Messi caused a stir in the face of the Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev. Ronald Koeman was quick to assure that his absence was to give him a break from so many games, just as he also decided to leave the Dutch Frenkie de Jong in Barcelona, who also accumulates many minutes at this start of the season. The Dutch coach wanted to avoid such a long trip and such an uncomfortable match two of its key players at the start of the season.
However, Messi's situation, with his latest statements and performance on the field, suggest that there are other hidden factors to explain this unusual low.
With this bleak outlook, to which we must also add the casualties of Gerard Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Samuel Umtiti, Ronald Araujo and Sergio Busquets, along with Ansu Fati, Barcelona will be presented in Kiev. With only 16 players from the first team.
And we can still say that Koeman is in luck because finally the French striker Ousmane Dembélé recovered in time from his bad fall in the Wanda Metropolitano that left his left shoulder damaged. Fortunately, the injury did not go much further and has been solved with a bandage, which will not prevent him from participating in the match.
Koeman has summoned the central of the subsidiary, Oscar Mingueza, to supply so many casualties in defense, who will also be accompanied by the goalkeeper Iñaki Peña and the forward Konrad of the Source.
As a great novelty, the first call-up for the Brazilian midfielder as a Blaugrana Matheus fernandes.
Thus, the expedition that will travel to Kiev early in the afternoon to play the game against Dinamo de Kieve this Tuesday (9 pm) is made up of: Ter Stegen, Neto, Junior, Lenglet, Alba, Pjanic, Matheus, Dest, Aleñá, Pedri, Coutinho, Riqui Puig, Griezmann, Trincao, Dembélé, Braithwaite, Peña, Konrad and Mingueza.