Barcelona had a tough beginning to their Champions League journey, suffering a 2-1 loss to AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II, a defeat made worse by Eric Garcia’s early red card.
Under coach Hansi Flick, Barcelona, who reached the quarter-finals last season, are eager to go even further this year.
Domestically, they’ve been in stellar form, winning all six of their first league matches. Recently, they secured a commanding 5-1 victory over Villarreal and are preparing for upcoming games against Getafe and Osasuna.
Swiss champions Young Boys also started their Champions League campaign with disappointment, losing 3-0 at home to Aston Villa. However, they quickly bounced back in their domestic league, earning their first win of the season after seven games with a 4-1 triumph over Winterthur.
While they are not expected to seriously challenge Barcelona, Young Boys have been strong in away matches, going undefeated in five consecutive road games, including four wins. Before facing Barcelona, they were set to take on Grasshoppers in the Swiss league.
Barcelona is dealing with a major setback as captain and goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen is out for eight months.
The club has explored replacements such as former Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and Keylor Navas, but for now, backup keeper Iñaki Peña will step in. In addition to Ter Stegen, Barcelona will be missing key players like Frenkie De Jong, Gavi, Andreas Christensen, and Ronald Araújo.
Despite these absences, Barça still boasts plenty of firepower with Robert Lewandowski (6 goals, 2 assists in La Liga), a sharp Raphinha, and rising star Lamine Yamal (3 goals, 5 assists), who scored in their Champions League opener against Monaco.
Young Boys also have key players out, including Anthony Conte, Saidy Janko, and Frederik Pfeiffer. However, they will depend on Silvère Ganvoula (4 goals in the league), Swiss international Joel Monteiro (3 goals, 1 assist), and Cedric Itten, who scored 10 goals and made 3 assists last season, although he has struggled to find form this year.
Prediction
Young Boys have a pattern of high-scoring games, with their last nine top-tier matches seeing goals for both teams.
Barcelona has also struggled to keep clean sheets, with seven of their last nine games featuring goals for both sides. Given Barcelona’s attacking firepower, a high-scoring match is likely.
Prediction: Barcelona 4 : 1 Young Boys
