Juliano Belletti will begin his new stage as coach of Barça Atlètic and wants to do it in a big way. The Brazilian coach hopes to make history with the culé subsidiary by conquering the U-20 Intercontinental Cup for the first time in history this Saturday, August 23 at 9:30 p.m. Spanish time.

The match will be played against Flamengo U-20 at the Maracaná, with the Brazilian team having the advantage of being at home and important absences suffered by the culé subsidiary due to their commitments with the first team.

Belletti debuts on the bench with a historic challenge

The format is simple, a single match between the champion of the Youth League and the U-20 Copa Libertadores. The former coach of Barça's Juvenil A achieved the treble last season and now wants to return the subsidiary team to the Primera Federación after the relegation last season, as well as achieve new titles in the lower categories.

The strategist has a squad made up of players from Barça Atlètic and members of Juvenil A due to the absence of several of the subsidiary's stars due to Flick's refusal to let them go for the match.

This is the case of 'Dro' Fernández, Jofre Torrents, Guille Fernández and Toni Fernández, who have been gaining the confidence of the German coach thanks to their good performance in the preseason and training with the first team.

Belletti declared prior to the match: "We have never faced a South American team, even more so a Brazilian team that is usually tactically good, but they also have their individual quality." This is in clear reference to the complexity of the match.

A hostile Maracaná and important absences for the challenge

The young squad arrived in Rio de Janeiro last Wednesday and are training at the Fluminense Sports City. The culés will play in a stadium with a capacity of 79,000 spectators, where most of the seats will be occupied by fans of the local team, so the azulgranas must know how to deal with the pressure.

The strategist stated with respect to this: “Even if it is in the Maracaná, in front of an impressive crowd, we will try to do what we always do with our game, our principles of concepts, which is what we have done in the Youth League and has made us win the competition to get here and enjoy.”

Flamengo is the current champion after defeating Olympiakos 2-1, managing to lift this trophy in 2024. In case of a tie in regular time, there will be a penalty shootout directly, without extra time.

FC Barcelona trusts its young stars to make a place for themselves in the history of the club. Belletti's team is confident of returning to Barcelona with the first U-20 Intercontinental Cup for those trained at La Masia.

Barça's squad for the U-20 Intercontinental:

  • Andrés Cuenca 
  • Adrián
  • Alexis Olmedo 
  • Brian Fariñas 
  • Eder Aller
  • Campos
  • Álvaro Cortés
  • Gistau Guillem
  • Jan Virgili
  • Juan
  • Max Bonfill 
  • Landry 
  • Oduro
  • Parriego 
  • Pedro Rodríguez 
  • Quim Junyent
  • Sala 
  • Sama Nomoko
  • Kluivert 
  • Tommy Marqués 
  • Walton
  • Xavi Espart