Barcelona are reportedly facing the prospect of a shortage at left-back due to developments at Stamford Bridge.

According to reports, Barca are about to sell deputy left-back Junior Firpo to Leeds United for €15million with the former Real Betis defender seeking regular football.

But reports have also claimed that Barcelona were planning to turn to out of favour Chelsea star Marcos Alonso to fill the void, the Spaniard seeing limited action at Stamford Bridge this season.

However, according to a fresh report from Mundo Deportivo, as cited by Football Espana, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel is desperate to keep Alonso as part of his squad ahead of next season.

Alonso is under contract at Chelsea until 2023, meaning the Blues are in a comfortable position over their wing-back, but it could ultimately come down to whether Alonso wants to leave having had to settle for limited minutes last season.

The problem Barcelona have is that they can’t offer him regular football, either, with Jordi Alba very likely to remain the starter at left-back.

Reports in London claim tension is brewing at Stamford Bridge over Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia’s move to sell Marcos Alonso to Barcelona.

Granovskaia was open to selling left-back Marcos Alonso to Barcelona, but Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has stepped in to block the move.

According to the Express, the Chelsea manager and transfer chief aren’t seeing eye to eye this summer.

Barcelona are on the hunt for a left-back this summer as they look to build strength-in-depth, and had reportedly earmarked Alonso as a top target for the position.

The Spaniard saw limited Premier League opportunities last season, with new manager Thomas Tuchel preferring Ben Chilwell at left-back.

Alonso made just 17 appearances in all competitions across the campaign, comfortably the fewest of any of his five seasons at Chelsea.

But despite the 30-year-old’s lack of playing time, Tuchel is keen to keep Alonso at the club due to his tactical flexibility, with the player able to play as a full-back, wing-back or on the left of a back three.

And, when Barcelona came calling, Tuchel stepped in to override Granovskaia and insist that he wants to keep Alonso “at all costs”, according to Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo.

Barcelona, who are expected to complete a sale of Junior Firpo to Leeds, will have to turn their left-back focus elsewhere. While Chelsea’s transfer tsar will also be looking to rediscover her midas touch.

Granovskaia’s ruthless spending last year saw the club bring in Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech before many of Chelsea’s Premier League rivals had even got the ball rolling on their transfer window business.

But the 2021 transfer operations aren’t progressing so quickly for Roman Abramovich’s right-hand woman, with the hunt for a striker also stuttering.

Switzerland shocked the world by eliminating reigning world champions France from Euro 2020 at the National Arena.

The Swiss opened the scoring on 15 minutes with Haris Seferovic’s header after Steven Zuber’s wonderful cross from the left.

Vladimir Petkovic’s men almost doubled their lead after 55 minutes but Ricardo Rodriguez’s penalty shot was saved by Hugo Lloris down his bottom right corner.

After a horrible first half, France turned things around in just two minutes with Karim Benzema.

Benzema equalised with a fine strike, following a brilliant touch, on 57 minutes and then turned things around with a header.

Paul Pogba appeared to have sealed qualification with a screamer in the 75th minute but Seferovic put his country back in the game six minutes later.

Mario Gavranovic then did the unthinkable in the 90th minute as he equalised with a beautiful shot from the edge of the box.

Nothing major happened on extra-time and so the game went on penalties.

All Swiss players hit the target, France’s stars were also on target except for Kylian Mbappe who was beaten by Yann Sommer.

Photo Credit: Sky Sports