Barcelona lack central defenders for crucial clash against Juventus

Barcelona faces a defensive problem ahead of Juventus clash.

The new Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman will be facing a hard time against Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus in the UEFA Champions League as he will be without any centre backs options. Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti are out because of red card and injury respectively. Meanwhile, young centre back Ramos Mingo, despite having the trust of Ronald Koeman, cannot play as he was not registered with the UEFA rules and regulations for the competition.

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Pique saw a double yellow in their first UEFA Champions League game and now will be replaced by Ronald Araujo who will be pairing up with Clement Lenglet to face the Italian Champions.

However, there are no direct replacements as even Barcelona’s B team centre back Oscar Mingueza is out injured. Pique and Umtiti’s absence will be a tough test for the Catalan giants as they keep facing problems in this transition period.

Mingueza recently reported a minor injury in the muscular regions of his leg. Hence he is being considered out injured and will not be available. Another option could have been Mingo but he cannot play because he did not have 2 seasons with the club before as an academy player in the lower categories. That is the standard rule for the Champions League and Ramos did not clear the necessary requirements.

However, Barca will have Lenglet and Araujo who are doing pretty well this season. Lenglet has already made his reputation by himself to be considered one of the main options for centre back at the Nou Camp.

As for Umtiti, his career is turning stale with multiple injuries and him failing to recover from his knee operation. He still has the ability and capability to be one of the top centre backs in the world, which time will definitely tell whether he would ever reach that potential at Barca.

Will Barca struggling without having a proper substitute centre-back?