Xavi Hernandez, after making his debut as Barcelona manager this weekend, is set to face the Champions League test as Camp Nou hosts Beneficia on Tuesday. A must-win game will challenge the former Barca player, who believes the ‘team cannot ignore its principles’. 

Barcelona’s performance against Benfica will determine their chances to qualify for the Champions League last 16. The team, in simple words, cannot afford to lose. They are placed second on the Group E table, leading Beneficia by two points. Group leaders Bayern Munich have qualified for the next round. 

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Xavi’s men come to the game riding on a 1-0 win over Espanyol in La Liga. The home victory  ended the team’s four-game winless streak in the league. 

Against Espanyol, Barcelona needed Memphis Depay’s 48th-minute penalty to move up to the sixth spot. 

“We cannot ignore our principles,” said Xavi on Saturday, after the win. 

“The players I’ve picked are not the best ones to launch missiles, they’re the ones to have the ball, to press high, to make the pitch bigger and while that gives people a heart attack, it gives us the chance to play the game how we want to.”

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“We had to go at the opposition, dominate, have the ball. It’s not a physical problem, it’s a football problem,” he added.

Barcelona will take a flight to Germany to play their last group game against Bayern Munich. 

Talking about the battle on Tuesday, Xavi said that the ‘game is another final’ for the 2015 champions.

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Barcelona probable lineup (4-3-3) – ter Stegen; Mingueza, Araujo, Pique, Alba; Gavi, Busquets, de Jong; Demir, Depay, Coutinho

Beneficia probable lineup (3-4-2-1) –Vlachodimos; Otamendi, Morato, Vertonghen; Gilberto, Weigl, Pizzi, Grimaldo; Nunez, Yeremchuk; Rafa