FC Barcelona would be looking for their first win against Rubin Kazan
Having already qualified as the Group leaders, FC Barcelona's final group match against Rubin Kazan usually should invoke only academic interest. But I doubt it. Guardiola might be taking this test a bit serious than other thinks. I mean, Rubin Kazan is that one challenge in which Guardiola never managed to be on the right side. In their three meetings we have 2 draws and one defeat. So that should make Guardiola a bit more motivated. And more over, we may not get a much better chance to beat Rubin Kazan that tomorrow night. To be honest, Rubin Kazan has been extremely hard for us to break down in the last couple of meetings. They usually line up with a 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 formation against us and we had found it time and again difficult to break. BUt tomorrow they themselves are going to be in a dileama. Rubin Kazan's victory at home against FC Copenhagen means that they now have a realistic chance of qualifying for the second round. They are currently in six points and Copenhagen in seven points. A victory of Copenhagen could break Rubin's hopes, but I still believe they will go for a win and hope for Pananthanaikos to do a favour to them. Now any team chasing for a victory is a very good news for Barca, actually extremely good news for Barca.
According to the offficial site - Alves, Xavi, Villa, Pedro and Keita all are rested for this encounter. Keita was expected to start in this match, but he did experience a slight problem with his left knee and is rested as a precautionary measure. Pep Guardiola has called upon five Barca B players for thsi clash - Marc Bartra, Andreu Fontàs, Thiago Alcántara, Jonathan dos Santos and Víctor Vázquez. But the big question will be to see whether Guardiola will start with Messi in the line-up. My call is that Messi would probably start in the match and should look to form an attacking partnership with both Bojan and Jeffren. This could be an interesting test for Bojan. He did look good in recent matches and this could be a very good test. Mascherano is a definite to start and may partner Iniesta and Thiago in the midfield. The defense could see one of the youngster - Batra or Fontas to partner Pique in centre of defense. My pick will be Batra. The full backs most probably would be Maxwell and Adriano. This is going to be a very, very difficult match. Rubin Kazan would be highly motivated and our boys could seriously ease a bit after the recent tough encounters. But there are kids in the line-up who would like to prove their importance in this match. I would seriously love to see we finally registering a victory against Rubin Kazan, but I doubt that is going to happen. I predict a 1-1 draw yet again.
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