Barcelona, Dec 10 (IANS) Ronald Araujo returns to FC Barcelona's match day squad, 156 days after picking up an injury in the quarter-finals of the Copa America. With the hamstring injury that needed surgery now behind him, the Uruguayan defender has been included in the Barca squad for the game against Borussia Dortmund.

It is the first time that Araujo has been called under Hansi Flick, and it comes for Barca's trip to the Signal Iduna Park on Thursday (IST) in the Champions League.

Both teams have been in red-hot goal-scoring form, putting their opponents to bed with their impeccable striking prowess. While Dortmund hasn’t had the best results in the Bundesliga, Nuri Sahin’s team has been making up for that in the Champions League. They are currently sitting in fourth place on the table with four wins and one loss and an average scoring rate of 3.2 goals per match, which will be a handful for the Catalan giants to handle.

The trio of Gittens, Guirassy, and Adeyemi have been wreaking havoc on the defence lines of each team they have faced, with 11 out of the 16 goals scored by the team overall. On the other hand, Barcelona should not be ruled out with their new crop of players, Hansi Flick’s high defensive line tactics, and their enigmatic captain, Raphinha Dias, who is their top scorer in the Champions League so far.

Despite sitting in third place in the UCL table, Barcelona will be looking to shake off their performances in recent weeks which has seen the Hansi Flick led side drop points in four of their last five League games.

Barcelona squad against Dortmund:

Cubarsi, Balde, R Araujo, I Martinez, Gavi, ⁠Ferran, Pedri, ⁠Lewandowski, Raphinha, Inaki Pena, Pablo Torre, Fermin, M Casado, Pau Víctor, ⁠Lamine Yamal, Olmo, F De Jong, Kounde, Eric, Szczęsny, Astralaga, H Fort and Gerard Martín.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS

Words: 274