Guardiola will have some sleeples night after his preferred left-back Abidal has been ruled out of action for two months due to a thigh injury. Already Barca will be missing Alves, Toure due to injury and Pique and Marquez due to suspension in Sunday's visit to Atletico Madrid. This put Guardiola in a very tight spot as he has to organise the defense with Milito, Puyol, Chygrynskiy and Maxwell. The injury come to Abidal in a very unfortunate time as he has been in excellent form recently. Maxwell's performance last week at Right back gave an assurance that we may not be missing Alves that much. Now it's all back to square one. Iniesta also returned early from training after suffering a knock on his leg, but the club assured that it was a precautionary step. Marc Bartra and Andreu Fontas from Barca Atletic has been called up as cover for the injuries.
The logical formation would be to pair Chygrynskiy and Milito in the middle and use Puyol as a Right Back and Maxwell as Left Back. But it won't be a bad ploy to switch Puyol and Maxwell so that Maxwell can continue on his last match form. Our last visit to Vicente Calderón ended with a 4-3 defeat, with Aguero and Forlan running riot. But a midfield of Iniesta and Xavi can contain that pressure easily by dominating possession.