Ansu Fati's first start for Xavi could be around the corner

Time for rotations, time for Ansu Fati. The home-grown player had a rough injury-stricken period last ten months. Xavi could hand the 10 a spot in the starting eleven for the Champions League opener.

Ansu has played in all of Barça's matches to date, both friendly and official. He has yet to start any league match. He played the last half hour against Rayo Vallecano, Real Sociedad -scoring in the match- and Real Valladolid; while against Sevilla he played the last quarter of an hour.

To go back to his last start in an official match for Barça, we have to go back to the newspaper archives. It was on 6 November 2021, shortly after Ronald Koeman had been sacked and just before Xavi Hernández arrived on the Blaugrana bench. Sergi Barjuan was in charge.

He opened the scoring after five minutes in Balaídos but had to be substituted at half-time. He reappeared in January against Athletic in the Copa but relapsed again at San Mamés and in the last few league games he played he came off the bench.

Therefore, Xavi has yet to start him in an official match.

In a press conference, he acknowledged that there will be rotations against Viktoria Plzen. The demands of the schedule and the large squad will allow the coach to make rotations across the pitch.

Ansu could start up front, accompanied by Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, Dembélé or Raphinha. With the striker, players such as Christensen, Jordi Alba and Frenkie de Jong could also start.

Xavi Hernández recently admitted in a press conference that they want to be "cautious" with Ansu Fati, but in the run-up to the match against Viktoria Plzen, he assured that the youth player is ready to start a match.

Will tonight be the moment?