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#3 Sergio Busquets vs Ivan Rakitic
Busquets has recovered some sort of form in the first two league games of the season, after a disappointing 2019-20 campaign.
On Sunday, he will come up against a familiar face in Ivan Rakitic, who faces the Catalans for the first time, since ending a six-year stay with Barcelona this summer, to re-join Sevilla.
Rakitic is likely to be the one tasked with playing the final killer pass through to the likes of Lucas Ocampos and the other attackers. Busquets, in his prime, was trusted by his managers to shut down passing lanes for the opposition, and then help Barcelona build attacks with his sensational passing ability.
If he can do that against Rakitic in this game, it will give Koeman plenty of encouragement for the rest of the season ahead.
#2 Antoine Griezmann vs Jules Kounde
Griezmann has been used in an advanced central role this season, just as Koeman had promised during the friendlies that Barcelona played prior to the start of the season.
His ability to interchange positions, with the likes of Messi and Coutinho makes him so tough to defend against, and this is why Kounde will have a big task on his hands on Sunday.
Griezmann, in the first two games, played very well as the link player between the rest of the Barca front four. Even though the actual end-product was missing from Griezmann, his work as an enabler for Coutinho has helped the Brazilian find two assists in as many games - both for Fati.
Kounde, who is set to remain at Sevilla for the season, following a lot of transfer speculation, will have his task cut out.
#1 Gerard Pique vs Luuk de Jong
With Lenglet suspended, Pique needs to take responsibility and step up as the leader of the Barcelona defence. Young Ronald Araujo impressed against Celta Vigo, but even so, Pique will have to guide the 21-year-old through the tough moments he is bound to face.
Everyone knows the nature of the threat that is posed by Luuk de Jong. His aerial ability is unmatched, and as he showed in the Europa League final, you cannot leave him unmarked in the box.
Barcelona have two options to counter that - one would be stop crosses from coming into the box, but that is a difficult avenue to completely shut out.
The other alternative that Barcelona have to stop De Jong from hurting them is for Pique to take responsibility and fight with the Dutch striker to win the aerial duels.
