Spanish champions Barcelona face a major crisis in the centre of defence but otherwise look ready to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Arsenal and march happily onto the Champions League quarterfinals. The attack core of the team is intact - Leo Messi, David Villa, Andres Iniesta, and Xavi all start, but Pep Guardiola has been forced to drop Sergio Busquets into use as an auxilary centre back thanks to the suspension of Gerard Pique and the continued absence of captain Carlos Puyol.
FC Barcelona Vs. Arsenal FC, 2011: Barcelona Lineup
Busquets will partner Eric Abidal in an attempt to deal with Dutch striker Robin van Persie, who caused Barcelona some real problems in the first leg. Adriano will make a rare appearance at left back, and he has perhaps the most difficult task of all - figuring out a way to stop Samir Nasri. He'll be one of the first to do so should he manage it, while Dani Alves on the right isn't going to be doing much defending against Tomas Rosicky, nor will he need to.
Busquets' forced deployment as a defender means that there's room for former Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano in the holding role - he'll be tasked with stopping Cesc Fabregas from supplying his forwards with dangerous passes, but he'll also have to set up passing lanes for Barcelona's attacks. Mascherano has the ability to shuttle the ball forwards and is a very tough proposition to get past, but he's undoubtedly weaker than Busquets in his distribution.
Meanwhile, Messi is Messi, Villa is Villa, Xavi is Xavi. Should any of them have anything like average matches, they’ll score plenty of goals against a competent, but not good Arsenal defence. They might need to score them, too - the visitors will be going all-out to get a goal and the match could easily turn into something of a shootout.
Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Adriano, Busquets, Abidal, Alves; Mascherano, Xavi, Iniesta; Villa, Messi, Pedro.
Subs: Pinto, Bojan, Keita, Milito, Maxwell, Afellay, Thiago.
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