The starting lineups for Hansi Flick's Barça and Marcelino García's Villarreal are now confirmed for today's match, on Sunday, December 21, 2025, at 4:15 PM.

Below, we review the starting elevens, the benches with the substitutes, and the injured and suspended players for FC Barcelona and Villarreal CF for the match of matchday 17 of LaLiga EA Sports 2025-2026.

FC Barcelona Starting Lineup

Hansi Flick makes two changes from the XI against Osasuna. Most notably, Frenkie de Jong returns to the starting lineup in place of the injured Pedri González, while Fermín López will play as an attacking midfielder. Lamine Yamal remains in his usual position, with Raphinha on the left wing.

Furthermore, **Ferran Torres** also repeats as '9' instead of Robert Lewandowski. Fundamentally, everything remains the same, with the center-back pairing formed by Pau Cubarsí and Gerard Martín. Joan García remains in goal, as do Balde and Koundé as full-backs. **Eric García** stays as the defensive pivot

Barça XI (OFFICIAL):

  1. (#13, P) Joan García
  2. (#23) Jules Koundé
  3. (#18) Gerard Martín
  4. (#05) Pau Cubarsí
  5. (#03) Alejandro Balde
  6. (#24) Eric García
  7. (#21) Frenkie de Jong 
  8. (#16) Fermín López
  9. (#10) Lamine Yamal
  10. (#11) Raphinha
  11. (#07) Ferran Torres

FC Barcelona Bench (substitute players)

  1. (#01, P) Marc-André ter Stegen
  2. (#25, P) Szczesny
  3. (#09) Robert Lewandowski
  4. (#14) Marcus Rashford
  5. (#17) Marc Casadó
  6. (#22) Marc Bernal
  7. (#27) Dro Fernández
  8. (#28) Roony Bardghji
  9. (#43) Tommy Marqués

FC Barcelona Injured Players

  1. (#06) Gavi
  2. (#08) Pedri
  3. (#15) Andreas Christensen
  4. (#20) Dani Olmo

FC Barcelona players sanctioned:

  1.  None.

Villarreal starting lineup against Barcelona 

  • Villarreal XI: Luiz Júnior; Navarro, Marín, Veiga, Pedraza; Comesaña, Parejo, Buchanan, Moleiro; Pépé and Ayoze Pérez.
  • Bench: Tenas (P), Altimira, Solomon, Costa, Valou, Maciá, Gerard Moreno, Diatta, Mikautadze, Oluwaseyi.

Villarreal, for their part, take to the Estadio de la Cerámica with Rafa Marín and Renato Veiga as center-backs, while Pau Navarro and Pedraza will be the full-backs. Luiz Júnior repeats in goal and, in midfield, the experienced Dani Parejo accompanies Santi Comesaña in defensive and build-up duties.

Alberto Moleiro and Tajon Buchanan will play on the wings, while Ayoze Pérez and Nicolas Pépé will be the forwards. The 'Yellow Submarine' has only lost a couple of league games and is third with 35 points, 8 behind Barça with 2 games left to play, but they have up to 10 absences, 8 of them due to injury.