A Patched-Up Basel Host a Barça Still Finding Its Shape

What do you do with a matchday squad missing its two best available midfield options and its starting goalkeeper, against a club still stitching itself back together after a World Cup summer? That was the question facing both benches at St. Jakob-Park on Sunday, as FC Basel welcomed Barcelona for what amounted to a mutual dress rehearsal rather than a spectacle — Barça’s penultimate run-out before the La Liga curtain-raiser at Elche, and Basel’s chance to test themselves less than 24 hours after grinding out a Swiss Cup win in Courtelle.

Context mattered more than the scoreline going in. Stephan Lichtsteiner’s side arrived with six points from three Super League games, sitting three off early pace-setter Lugano, and had barely had time to recover from a midweek cup outing before facing a Barcelona squad that traveled twenty-four players deep. For Hansi Flick, the exercise was about distribution of minutes and a first live look at his newest attacking import, rather than about building any kind of rhythm that would carry meaning beyond Sunday afternoon.

The bigger storyline belonged to Anthony Gordon, handed a central role in a front three for what was effectively his unofficial Barça debut after arriving from Newcastle United ahead of the World Cup break. Flick’s willingness to try him through the middle, rather than easing him in from the flank, said as much about squad management as it did about tactical intent — a low-stakes environment to experiment before opening night arrives.

🚑 Treatment Room Watch: Who’s Missing for Both Sides

Both clubs traveled into the weekend short-handed, though for very different reasons. Basel’s absentee list reflects a squad still managing knocks picked up across a congested August, while Barcelona’s is dominated by two significant longer-term knee injuries that will shape their opening weeks of the new season regardless of Sunday’s outcome.

FC BASEL — INJURY REPORT
Long-Term / IR	Kaio Eduardo	Knee injury
Out / Ruled Out	Jonas Omlin	Injured, unavailable
Out / Ruled Out	Gabriel Sigua	Injured (wound), unavailable
Out / Ruled Out	Coleen Louis	Injured, unavailable
Questionable	Đorđe Jovanović	Knock, doubtful

FC BARCELONA — INJURY REPORT
Long-Term / IR	Frenkie de Jong	MCL tear (right knee), no surgery, timeline unconfirmed
Long-Term / IR	Roony Bardghji	ACL rupture (right knee), post-surgery, targeting early 2027

Basel’s list is a headache more than a crisis — Mirko Salvi deputizes comfortably for Omlin between the posts, and the club’s depth at full-back and in midfield allowed Lichtsteiner to make wholesale changes anyway given the quick turnaround from Saturday’s cup tie. Barcelona’s situation carries more weight: De Jong’s knee issue already forces a midfield reshuffle for the season opener, and Bardghji’s second ACL tear in the same knee closes the book on a proposed loan exit that had been close to completion before the injury struck.

📋 Named Starting Sides

FC BASEL — STARTING XI
Goalkeeper	Renato Widmer D’Autilia	Starts with Omlin and Salvi options limited by rotation
Defense	Kevin Rüegg, Bećir Omeragić, Nicolas Vouilloz, Evann Senaya	Back four ahead of Widmer
Midfield	Jonas Harder, Metinho, Jean Doucouré, Aaron Malouda	Four-man engine room behind the front two
Attack	Philip Otele, Albian Ajeti	Leads the line, with Shaqiri and Celar held in reserve

FC BARCELONA — STARTING XI
Goalkeeper	Joan García	Starts ahead of Szczęsny
Defense	Xavi Espart, Andreas Christensen, Gerard Martín, Alejandro Balde	Back four, Cubarsí and Koundé held back
Midfield	Eric García, Marc Bernal	Double pivot covering for De Jong’s absence
Attack	Karim Adeyemi, Fermín López, Raphinha, Anthony Gordon	Gordon central in a front four, first involvement in Barça colors

Barcelona’s bench told its own story: Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Jules Koundé were all named among the substitutes rather than starters, evidence that Flick was reluctant to rush his World Cup returnees straight back into full workloads with the league opener at Elche only a week away. Pau Cubarsí was afforded the same caution. On the Basel side, Xherdan Shaqiri’s omission from the starting group — after being left out of Saturday’s cup win too — pointed to a deliberate management of the 34-year-old’s minutes across a demanding week.

• Anthony Gordon started centrally rather than on the wing, his first minutes in Barça colors since arriving from Newcastle.
• Frenkie de Jong’s MCL tear and Roony Bardghji’s second ACL rupture leave Flick’s midfield and attack shorter for the opening weeks of the season.
• Basel fielded a heavily rotated XI just a day after a Swiss Cup victory, with several cup starters — Sow, Celar, Olaigbe, Thorell — held back or benched.
• Neither Lamine Yamal nor Jules Koundé started, both eased back in gradually after their World Cup campaigns.

Around the fixture itself, previews framed the game less as a form guide and more as a logistics exercise — a chance for Flick to see his newest signing in a competitive shirt before the more consequential business begins against Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano in the season’s opening weeks, and a chance for Basel to measure themselves against continental opposition before returning full focus to the Super League title race.

⚽Extended Highlights
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Watch Basel vs Barcelona full match replay and highlights, At Sunday, August 16, 2026. in Friendly.