Squad announced for Copa first leg at Cultural Leonesa

FC Barcelona’s quest to win a fifth successive Copa del Rey in a row begins on Wednesday at 9.30pm CET away to second division Cultural Leonesa.

On Tuesday, Ernesto Valverde announced which 18 players he’ll be taking to the Reino de León, and the list goes as follows: Semedo, Denis Suárez, Arthur, Dembélé, Rafinha, Cillessen, Malcom, Lenglet, Samper, Munir, Sergi Roberto, Vidal, Aleñá, Miranda, Riqui Puig, Iñaki Peña, Cuenca and Chumi.

That means rest for Ter Stegen, Piqué, Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, Coutinho, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba, while Messi, Umtiti and Vermaelen remain injured.

Last session before the Cup

The seven players not picked for the game (Ter Stegen, Piqué, Rakitic, Busquets, Coutinho, Luis Suárez and Alba) were all given special permission to take Tuesday off, but the Barça players that made the squad, plus Oriol Busquets, were involved in the Tuesday training session.

Click on the video above to see how it went!