Barcelona is preparing to face Valencia this evening at the Johan Cruyff Stadium in the fourth round of La Liga, amidst the significant absence of the duo Lamine Yamal and Frenkie de Jong due to injuries sustained while participating with their national teams, a situation commonly referred to in the media as the FIFA virus.

According to the Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", this is only the second time that both players have missed the Barcelona squad together since German coach Hans Flick took over the team, having also missed the match against Atletico Madrid in the 18th round of last season, which Barcelona lost 2-1 at the Montjuïc Stadium.

On that day, Lamine was absent due to an ankle injury, while Flick surprised everyone by keeping De Jong on the bench without playing him, as happened in the previous match against Leganés, despite the team having exhausted all substitutions.

In that encounter against Atletico, Flick relied on the pivot duo Casado and Pedri, and pushed Gavi into the playmaking position, while Rafinha compensated for Lamine's absence on the right wing, and Firmin played on the left wing instead of Rafinha.

The players had previously missed the starting lineup in three other matches against Osasuna, Celta, and Las Palmas, but either one or both participated during the match. Against Osasuna, Lamine came on as a substitute while De Jong was absent due to injury, and against Celta, De Jong played only two minutes while Yamal was absent due to injury. In the match against Las Palmas, they both came on in the second half.

Flick is likely to rely on Casado and Rafinha again today against Valencia, with the possibility of including Marcus Rashford on the left wing as one of the options to compensate for the absences.