Lamine Yamal Champions League status up in air with injury as Barcelona set to play in 6,000 seat stadium

Barcelona will face Valencia on Sunday for the fourth LaLiga match of the 2025-26 season after the team coached by Hansi Flick won the opening two matches and then drew away against Rayo Vallecano as Barcelona are still waiting for the final green light to play at their home stadium, the newly renovated Spotify Camp Nou. After playing for two years at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the new Camp Nou was originally due to be ready in November 2024 with a limited capacity of 50,000 people, but then the work slowed down and the Blaugrana finished the 2024-25 season at the other stadium. Barcelona played the three opening matches of the 2025-26 LaLiga season away to get everything ready for September 2025, but the Spanish giants are still waiting for the final permission. For this reason, they will now play the first home match of the season at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, where the women’s team usually play the home games. However, the stadium can only host 6,000 fans and LaLiga have a minimum stadium capacity requirement of 8,000 seats for matches, but Barcelona were granted an exception. 

How to watch Barcelona vs. Valencia, odds

• Date: Sunday, Sep. 14 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
• Location: Estadi Johan Cruyff — Barcelona, Spain
• Live stream: ESPN+
• Odds: Barcelona -364; Draw +500; Valencia +864

Flick not happy with Spain for Yamal’s injury

Flick will deal with the absence of Barcelona star Lamine Yamal, who will miss the match against Valencia after “experiencing discomfort in the pubic area and is currently unable to train or play,” the club announced on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s match. Flick spoke about the injury of the 18-year old in the pre-match press conference and showed his frustration on how he was treated during the international break by the Spanish national team and coach Luis de la Fuente/

“Lamine goes to the national team with pain, didn’t train, had painkillers to play, they were three goals ahead in every match, and he played 79 and 73 minutes. Between the matches, he didn’t train. This is not taking care of players. Spain have the best team in the world, in every position they are unbelievably good. I am really sad about this situation. I never spoke with De la Fuente, maybe my Spanish is not good, his English is not good, so this is a problem.” 

Barcelona also announced that “his return to training will depend on how his condition evolves,” and for this reason is still not clear if Yamal will be able to be back ahead of the Champions League’s opening game against Newcastle that will take place on Thursday later this week.