Injury update: Alejandro Balde and Robert Lewandowski in contention for Inter-Barcelona | OneFootball

Barcelona and Inter will be setting their medical teams loose on their stars in the coming hours, as they try to prepare their stars for battle again for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final. Both teams will be nursing injuries going into the second leg.

For their part, the Blaugrana suffered a scare in the warm-up when Lamine Yamal went into the dressing room early. The 17-year-old was fit to play, but Jules Kounde did go down with an injury, and will likely miss the second leg against Inter.

The question now turns to whether Barcelona will get any players back, with all eyes on Robert Lewandowski and Alejandro Balde.

“We hope so, that maybe they will be able to play earlier, but we have to wait. In this situation, we cannot do stupid things, so we have to wait until the medical team says OK, green light, like we did with Lamine today,” Hansi Flick told the press at Montjuic.

Lewandowski is nursing a knee tendon injury that he suffered around 10 days ago, while Balde went down with a hamstring problem. According to RAC1, Balde is on course to be back for the second leg in Italy. There are more doubts about whether Lewandowski will be back in time, but he is not ruled out either. Flick’s answer seems to imply they have a chance of returning against Real Valladolid this weekend too.

How will Barcelona change for Inter in the second leg?

If Balde returns from injury, then it will immediately be less of a headache for Flick, who would return him to left-back in place of Gerard Martin. Although his goals were from set pieces, Barcelona struggled to control Denzel Dumfries, and he also notched an assist.

Image via Marca

Lewandowski would give Barcelona more of a presence in the box for the second leg if available. This could be useful if Inter are sat deep, and the contrast between Ferran Torres and the Polish striker has been one of the recipes for success this season. Kounde will have to be replaced though, and Eric Garcia looks like the most natural option to replace him, although Ronald Araujoa and Hector Fort are also alternatives.