'Top' signing and surprise absence! Flick recovers a key piece and loses another for Valencia-Barça

FC Barcelona will begin its journey in LaLiga EA Sports 2024-2025 this Saturday, August 17, against Valencia at Mestalla. The match, whose kick-off will take place at 9:30 p.m., will be Hansi Flick's official debut on the Barça bench, and the German has included two new additions in his first call-up for the national championship. Pedri González has managed to get on the list after completing three training sessions normally, while Ilkay Gündogan fell at the last minute of it.

The Canarian midfielder rejoined the discipline of the Barça first team last Wednesday after recovering in record time from his grade 2 internal lateral sprain in his left knee suffered during the match against Germany corresponding to the quarterfinals of the Euro Cup. Since then, the player completed all the sessions prior to the premiere at Mestalla along with the rest of his teammates with complete normality, which is why the German coach decided to include him in the call for the first day of the tournament.

Flick himself confirmed in the last press conference before the game against the Che team that the Tenerife native was in optimal condition after meeting the deadlines for his recovery satisfactorily. However, it is expected that he will not start from the start against those led by Rubén Baraja, although he could be useful to his coach during the second half of the match, since the Blaugrana midfield arrives quite depleted of troops.

Sensitive losses in the middle of the field

Frenkie de Jong and Gavi continue working on recovering from their respective physical setbacks and, as of today, their returns to the playing fields do not have a specific date stipulated, while Fermín López is enjoying a well-deserved vacation after his great participation in the Olympic Games. Now, to this list of absences we must add the name of Ilkay Gündogan, unexpected last-minute absence for the league debut.

The German suffered a severe blow to the eyebrow in the Joan Gamper Trophy match against AS Monaco, which is why Barça and Hansi Flick have made the decision to leave him out of the match against the Valencia team to avoid a major inconvenience. The German's non-call is preventive and he will almost certainly be against Athletic Club next week. Thus, the culés are preparing to face a complicated match with a luxury reinforcement who arrives at the right time to 'soften the blow' of the loss of one of their most important players.