Barca's Champions League campaign re-starts after the long vacation with a visit to Stuttgart on Tuesday. On the back of winning their group Barca will have the luxury of playing their second leg at home. Barca's recent injury worries has been a problem into the build up of this game. But it looks like Barca's injury problems are finally easing up. Xavi and Alves has been included in the team which makes the trip to Germany, despite not getting the final OK from Medical staff. The squad list is Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Maxwell, Piqué, Milito, Txigrinski, Touré, Sergio, Xavi, Iniesta, Bartra, Jonathan, Jeffren, Messi, Bojan, Pedro, Alves, Ibrahimovic and Henry. It is highly unlikely we will see both of them starting the match. Barca should be in high spirits with a 4-0 victory against Racing Santander. It is not yet clear whether Ibrahmovic is deemed fit for the Stuttgart match after missing out last match due to a ankle injury. Meanwhile Barca's opponent Stuttgart has their own injury problems. Stuttgart Left Back, Arthur Boka will be missing FC Barcelona tie after damaging his shoulder against FC Koln.Barca has upper hand in FC Barcelona vs Stuttgart Meeting in Past
Barca's recent visits to Germany all has been pretty good. The last visit was to face Bayern Munich which resulted in a 1-1 draw that completed a 5-1 aggregate victory at the Quarter Final stage. The last time FC Barcelona faced Stuttgart was in the group stage of 2007-08 Champions League Campaign. Barca registered comfortable Home and Away victories on that occasion. This visit will see our player Alexander Hleb who is on loan to Stuttgart plating against us after his move from Arsenal. The defense should feature once again Puyol as Right Back and Maxwell as Left Back. I expect Milito to pair up with Pique at the centre of defense. The midfield should remain the same as in the Racing match - Iniesta, Toure and Busquets. It is essential to let Iniesta play on the left side as in last match. The forward lin should have Henry retaining his position after a good showing against Racing, Messi should be the attacking option from teh right and Bojan should start as Centre Forward. Ibrahmovic may not be rushed to start this game and hence Bojan should try to produce another good performance. We may be missing some of the regulars in the team but still is expected to produce a favourable result. Anything other that a loss is a good result in the Champions League away legs, but Barca's quality should be enough to win this match. I predict a 0-2 victory for Barca.