Rest for Lamine Yamal? Flick's possible rotations against Leganés

FC Barcelona visits Leganés this Saturday (9:00 PM CEST), a rival that already surprised Hansi Flick's team in the first leg (0-1 in Montjuïc). Both teams arrive at the match of matchday 31 with totally opposite realities, with the Blaugrana team undefeated in their last 23 matches and the Madrid team in relegation places (18th). Looking ahead to the match in Butarque, the Barça coach does not rule out giving rest to several of his starters, including Lamine Yamal.

The youth player gave a scare in the 82nd minute of the match against Borussia Dortmund (4-0), asking for the change 5 minutes after scoring Barça's fourth and final goal. Ansu Fati entered in his place, but it all remained a gesture from the Rocafonda player with the '10', who added his first minutes in the tournament after a season where he is the player with the fewest minutes in the squad (191).

After the match, Flick made clear the reason for the winger's departure. "Lamine is fine. He has played too many minutes. We have a very good relationship. First, he told me that he wanted to play the whole match and then, no. Ansu would have played anyway; he deserved it", explained the Blaugrana coach in the post-match press conference.

Lamine Yamal exceeded 3,500 minutes against Dortmund

After the match against Dortmund, Yamal reached 3,534 minutes this season, spread over 43 matches. The Mataró player only missed 5 matches in the first round due to ankle problems and, in La Liga, he was only a substitute in matchday 8 against Osasuna (4-2), a match where he scored the Blaugrana's consolation goal before the end; in addition to the match against Las Palmas (1-2) on matchday 15, where he played the entire second half.

Thus, in the two La Liga matches where Flick preferred to leave him on the bench, Barça ended up losing. In the match on matchday 17 against Leganés (0-1) he played 75 minutes in which he could do little to avoid another Culé fall. That match, along with the debut in the Champions League against Monaco (2-1), are his only defeats of the season as a starter, since in the setbacks against Real Sociedad (1-0) and Atlético (1-2) he was absent due to injury.

Will the coach do without Yamal in the visit to Butarque? Other starters pointed out to rest on Saturday are Iñigo Martínez, Alejandro Balde and Frenkie de Jong. Ronald Araujo, Gerard Martín and Ferran Torres could return to the XI along with Gavi, who has alternated his presence in the line-up with Fermín López.

• Possible XI of Barça against Leganés: Szczesny; Koundé, Araujo, Cubarsí, Gerard Martín; Eric García, Pedri, Gavi; Ferran, Raphinha and Lewandowski.