Barcelona vs Alaves match preview and predictions for Saturday’s LaLiga match. Read on for the head-to-head, team news and predicted lineups as Abelardo’s side head to Camp Nou.
- DATE: Saturday 13th February 2021
- KICK-OFF: 21:00 (local time)
- STADIUM: Camp Nou
- COMPETITION: LaLiga
Barcelona vs Alaves Preview
Barcelona are back at Camp Nou on Saturday evening after a frustrating night in Sevilla in the Copa del Rey. Ronald Koeman has publicly doubted whether his team are even in the title race this season but they have to keep winning matches to maintain some degree of pressure on Atleti and they’ll certainly expect three points here.
A 2-0 defeat at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in the Copa Semi Final 1st Leg leaves Barcelona in real danger now of ending another season without a trophy. They felt deeply unfortunate to be denied a penalty in a game which saw their 16 game unbeaten run (90 minutes only) come to an end. While things have been flowing better in the final third, the suspicion that this team will still be exposed when it comes up against stronger opposition did not go away and the Sevilla result is a real warning for what may be to come in the Champions League.
Koeman will certainly have one eye on Tuesday’s clash with PSG when he picks his XI here. Leo Messi and Frenkie de Jong were both given rests only last weekend at Betis, a match Barca came back to win 3-2 with the Argentine playing a pivotal role off the bench. It’ll be interesting to see whether Koeman opts to leave Messi out again here in what bizarrely is only Barcelona’s second home game of 2021. They’ve already played eleven away from Camp Nou this year.
Alaves will certainly be hoping that Messi is among the substitutes and they might just fancy their chances of a famous upset here having already gone to Real Madrid and won this season. They picked up an even more significant win last time out, their first under the reappointed Abelardo in the shape of a 1-0 victory over fellow strugglers Real Valladolid.
They had greater control of the game than the scoreline suggests, registering over 6 times as many attempts on goal as their visitors. That was much more like the Alaves we grew accustomed to during Abelardo’s first spell and everyone connected with the club, will be hoping it proves to be something of a turning point in their campaign.
Head to Head
- Last 6 Competitive Meetings: 5 Barcelona Wins, 1 Draw.
- The sides drew 1-1 in October in Vitoria.
- Barcelona had won all of the previous 8 meetings.
- They’ve also won 10 of their last 11 home games against Alaves.
Team News
Barcelona have plenty of injury problems with Ronald Araujo the latest to pick up a problem which will rule him out here while Sergino Dest is a doubt.
Victor Laguardia is fit and should start with no other changes expected.
Predicted Barcelona Starting Lineup:
Ter Stegen – Alba, Lenglet, Mingueza, Dest – De Jong, Pedri, Busquets – Dembele, Griezmann, Trincao (4-3-3)
Predicted Alaves Starting Lineup:
Pacheco – Duarte, Lejeune, Laguardia, Navarro – Rioja, Pina, Garcia, Mendez – Joselu, Perez (4-4-2)
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Barcelona vs Alaves Predictions
Score Prediction: Barcelona 2-1 Alaves
This could be a trickier game than immediately meets the eye for Barcelona. It’s likely we will at least see some rotation and Alaves’ front two are always a handful. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they were on target against an unconvincing Barcelona defence but even if they opt to rest Messi again, you’d fancy the Catalans will be in a position to make changes if necessary and come on strong in the 2nd Half.
Barcelona vs Alaves Betting Tips (18+)
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