Barcelona captain Andres Iniesta was named among the substitutes for Saturday's Clasico against Real Madrid, who named Lucas Vazquez in an attacking midfield role for the match at the Camp Nou.
Iniesta had returned to training this week having been out since October with a knee injury, and Barcelona coach Luis Enrique had said the midfielder's recovery was ahead of schedule. However, the 32-year-old was only named among the substitutes.
���� Barça XI
1.Ter Stegen
3.Piqué
4.Rakitic
5.Sergio
9.Suárez
10.Messi
11.Neymar Jr
14.Mascherano
18.Alba
20.S.Roberto
21.A.Gomes#ForçaBarça- FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 3, 2016
Real coach Zinedine Zidane started with Lucas Vazquez alongside Isco and top-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo in the attacking trio behind centre-forward Karim Benzema.
Gareth Bale, the third member of the club's "BBC" trio, is expected to be out for as long as four months as hes recovers from ankle surgery.
��✅⚽️ #RMClasico
Here's our starting XI for El Clásico!#HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/jE9u76rOwt- Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) December 3, 2016
Madrid currently hold a six-point lead over defending champions Barca at the top of La Liga.