On Monday, 29th of April, as part of the 33rd round of the Spanish Primera, 'Barcelona' will take on 'Valencia' on their home pitch. The Blaugranas are lagging behind Real Madrid by a whopping 14 points and can no longer hope for the title, whilst the guests suffered a 2:1 defeat against 'Betis' and continue to fight for European competition qualification.
'Barcelona': Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Cancelo; Pedri, Christensen, Gundogan; Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha.
'Valencia': Mamardashvili; Correia, Mosquera, Ozkacar, Vazquez; Canos, Pepelu, Guerra, Lopez; Duro, Almeida.
The clash will take place in Barcelona at the Montjuïc stadium.
Barcelona bid farewell to the title after losing to Real Madrid on Bernabeu at Clásico match eight days ago (3:2). The Catalans twice led the score, but Los Blancos took the lead thanks to Jude Bellingham's winning goal, resulting in an 11-point gap behind 'real club'. Outraged fans of Blaugrana raged over non-counted goal of Lamina Jamal and even club’s president, Joan Laporta, threatened a lawsuit if it turned out that the ball crossed the line. For Xavi's charges (who will remain the head coach next season as well), the main task now is to secure the second position.
Barça made its way back to the Champions League's quarter-finals after two unsuccessful European campaigns (exits in the group stage), but ended up being weaker than PSG. This adds to the disappointments in Supercopa de Espana's final in January and Copa Del Rey's quarter-finals against Athletico Bilbao. Importantly, 'Barcelona' ranks only fifth (!) in the total count of home field points — only 37 in 16 home matches with 34 and 19 goals scored and conceded, respectively.
'Valencia', after spending several seasons in the lower half of the leaderboard, is back in the race for European tickets and is competing with 'Betis' for a place among the top seven. However, it’s worth noting that team Blanquinegros is not currently in its best form and lost the most important match last weekend at home to 'Betis' itself (1:2). For two accurate strikes of Josie Perez, ‘Valencia’ responded with a successful penalty by Pepelu.
Prior to that, 'Los Che' had remained undefeated in La Liga, claiming two victories against Granada (0:1) and Osasuna (0:1). Valencia hadn't won three consecutive La Liga away matches since November 2017, and overall, it ranks just 10th overall in terms of points gathered away from home (16 goals scored, 24 conceded). Fans are undoubtedly concerned that Los Murciélagos have scored a meagre two goals in their last five away games.
The hosts have only managed to grab one win in the last 15 matches against 'Barcelona', losing five of them, yet the charges of Ruben Baraha managed to draw 1:1 at Mestalla before Christmas.
Maybe 'Barcelona' has said goodbye to their title hopes after losing Clásico at Bernabeu, but the second place still needs to be defended: Girona won their game yesterday. 'Valencia' has been very unfortunate against Blaugranas in recent years and is facing serious personnel problems. I do not think 'Los Che' will be able to score points at Montjuïc - my bet is on the Catalans' triumph with a handicap of -1.5.
'Barça' scored only 8 goals in their last five rounds, but a galaxy of offensive stars hints that the Blaugranas are bound for a scoring spree sooner or later. I am placing a bet on home team's individual total of over 2 goals.
'Barça' will obviously play the leading role from the first minutes and will keep the ball. I am confidently betting on an individual total of over 5.5 corners for Catalans.
'Valencia' will spend most of the game time in defense, hence I am betting on 'Los Che' winning by yellow cards.
I am putting my stakes on an exact score of 3:1 in favor of ‘Barcelona’.
# | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | G | PTS | |
1 | Barcelona | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 13:3 | 12 | |
2 | Real Madrid | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7:2 | 8 | |
3 | Atl. Madrid | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6:2 | 8 | |
4 | Villarreal | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9:7 | 8 | |
5 | Girona | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7:4 | 7 | |
6 | Alaves | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5:3 | 7 | |
7 | Osasuna | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | -2 | 5:7 | 7 | |
8 | Celta Vigo | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 10:9 | 6 | |
9 | Leganes | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3:3 | 5 | |
10 | Mallorca | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2:2 | 5 | |
11 | Rayo Vallecano | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 4:5 | 4 | |
12 | Real Sociedad | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 3:4 | 4 | |
13 | Ath Bilbao | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 3:4 | 4 | |
14 | Espanyol | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 2:3 | 4 | |
15 | Valladolid | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -9 | 1:10 | 4 | |
16 | Getafe | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1:1 | 3 | |
17 | Betis | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -2 | 1:3 | 2 | |
18 | Las Palmas | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 4:7 | 2 | |
19 | Sevilla | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 3:6 | 2 | |
20 | Valencia | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | -4 | 3:7 | 1 | |
1 | Osasuna | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5:3 | 7 | |
2 | Barcelona | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9:1 | 6 | |
3 | Real Madrid | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5:0 | 6 | |
4 | Celta Vigo | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5:2 | 6 | |
5 | Atl. Madrid | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3:0 | 4 | |
6 | Villarreal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6:5 | 4 | |
7 | Alaves | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2:0 | 4 | |
8 | Ath Bilbao | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2:2 | 4 | |
9 | Valladolid | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1:0 | 4 | |
10 | Girona | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4:0 | 3 | |
11 | Leganes | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2:2 | 3 | |
12 | Espanyol | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2:2 | 3 | |
13 | Mallorca | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1:1 | 2 | |
14 | Getafe | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0:0 | 2 | |
15 | Las Palmas | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3:3 | 2 | |
16 | Betis | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1:1 | 1 | |
17 | Valencia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2:3 | 1 | |
18 | Rayo Vallecano | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1:2 | 0 | |
19 | Real Sociedad | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2:4 | 0 | |
20 | Sevilla | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1:4 | 0 | |
1 | Barcelona | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4:2 | 6 | |
2 | Atl. Madrid | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3:2 | 4 | |
3 | Villarreal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3:2 | 4 | |
4 | Girona | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3:4 | 4 | |
5 | Rayo Vallecano | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3:3 | 4 | |
6 | Real Sociedad | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1:0 | 4 | |
7 | Alaves | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3:3 | 3 | |
8 | Mallorca | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1:1 | 3 | |
9 | Real Madrid | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2:2 | 2 | |
10 | Leganes | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1:1 | 2 | |
11 | Sevilla | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2:2 | 2 | |
12 | Espanyol | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0:1 | 1 | |
13 | Getafe | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1:1 | 1 | |
14 | Betis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0:2 | 1 | |
15 | Osasuna | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0:4 | 0 | |
16 | Celta Vigo | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5:7 | 0 | |
17 | Ath Bilbao | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1:2 | 0 | |
18 | Valladolid | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0:10 | 0 | |
19 | Las Palmas | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1:4 | 0 | |
20 | Valencia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1:4 | 0 |
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