Barcelona vs. Nottingham Forest Lineups & Confirmed Team News

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Barcelona vs. Nottingham Forest Lineups & Confirmed Team News

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Pragjyoti Singh | Last updated Aug 8, 2026 12:07 PM ET

Barcelona faces Nottingham Forest today in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup, a triangular preseason tournament featuring three teams.

The exhibition format consists of three 45-minute matches played back-to-back on the same night. Udinese takes on Nottingham Forest in the opening game, followed by Nottingham Forest facing Barcelona. The evening will then conclude with Barcelona taking on Udinese in the final match.

Hansi Flick's Barcelona enters the tournament after a 3-2 loss on penalties to Birmingham City in their previous preseason outing. With the new La Liga season set to begin on August 23, the Spanish champions will be looking for a positive result with the league opener approaching.

Karim Adeyemi and Shane Kluivert during the pre-season friendly match between Birmingham City and FC Barcelona.Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images

Barcelona are also reportedly close to signing Spain midfielder Rodri from Manchester City following his impressive performances at the World Cup.

Barcelona vs. Nottingham Forest Lineups

Nottingham Forest:

Nottingham Forest might start with Sels in goal, with Abbott, Milenkovic and Cunha forming the back three. Williams and Aina are deployed as the wing-backs, with Dominguez and Gibbs-White in central midfield. McAtee can play behind Jesus and Wood in the front three.

Sels; Abbott, Milenkovic, Cunha; Williams, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, McAtee, Aina; Jesus, Wood

Barcelona:

Barcelona can start with Szczesny in goal, with Torrents, Martin and Christensen forming the back three. Espart and Tunkara could operate as the wing-backs, while Casado and Bernal make up the central midfield. Kluivert and Abdelkarim support new signing Adeyemi in attack.

Szczesny; Torrents, Martin, Christensen, Espart; Casado, Bernal, Tunkara; Kluivert, Abdelkarim, Adeyemi

Both teams are using a compact 3-4-3-style setup, with three defenders, four midfielders and three attackers.

What Is a Triangular Tournament?

A triangular tournament is a three-team round-robin competition in which each team plays the other two teams once. In preseason soccer, the matches can be shortened to 45 minutes, allowing all three clubs to complete a full 90 minutes of playing time across two games in the same evening.

The format was particularly popular among Italian clubs during the 1990s and 2000s and has occasionally been used for preseason tournaments in more recent years.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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