On Saturday, 4th of May, as a part of the 34th tour of the Spanish Primera, Girona is set to host Barcelona at their home ground. Xavi’s team sits in the second position on the leaderboard, trailing the leading Real Madrid by 11 points and just surpassing Girona by two points, who is bound to win a ticket to the Champions League.
Girona: Gazzaniga; E Garcia, D Lopez, Blind, Gutierrez; Herrera, A Garcia; Couto, Martin, Savio; Dovbyk.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Cancelo; Gundogan, Christensen, Pedri; Yamal, Lewandowski, Raphinha.
The match will be held in Girona at the Montilivi Stadium.
Girona has had a splendid season, and now the Catalans need to back it up with qualification for the Champions League. A victory in the upcoming match would mathematically secure them a ticket to the main continental championship, although this might happen sooner if Athletic Bilbao loses on Friday evening. Nevertheless, Michel's charges are set on winning the Catalonian derby for the second time in the current campaign (victory in Barcelona with a score of 2:4 in the first round) and taking away the second place on the leaderboard from their opponents.
At the end of April, the Blanquivermell claimed two magnificent wins against Cadiz (4:1) and Las Palmas (0:2) last weekend, putting an end to a dreadful series of 5 consecutive away defeats. David Lopez opened the score in the first half after a penalty, while Artem Dovbyk distinguished himself with a goal on the 57th minute. This season the red and whites have excelled at playing at home, scoring 41 points in 16 matches in front of their fans (the third-best record in the division).
Two weeks ago, Barcelona lost all its season's goals in just a few days: a defeat in the Champions League against PSG (2:3 at the Park, 1:4 home) was followed by a fiasco in El Clasico at Bernabeu from Real Madrid (3:2). This defeat increased the gap between the two rivals to 11 points. Thankfully, after a disastrous first half of the match against Valencia last Monday, Barça managed to turn the game around in the second half thanks to a hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski (4:2), capitalising on the dismissal of main goalkeeper Los Che Mamardashvili.
Now all efforts of Xavi’s squad will be aimed at taking second place on the leaderboard, whereas Champions League qualification is already guaranteed. By the way, the Spanish coach himself is bound to remain at the head after the summer, so the planning of the next season has already begun for the Catalans. Barça holds the second position in terms of points scored away (33 in 16 away matches, 30 goals scored, 18 conceded).
The Catalonian derbies regularly tend to lean in favour of Barcelona (7 wins out of the last 11 matches), but the first round saw Girona taking the upper hand in the encounter at Montjuic (2:4).
From a historical point of view, Barcelona has often dominated Girona, but this season seems to have changed that trend: the white-maroon won a precious victory in the first round (2:4) and, above all, fiercely fight for the second place. Considering the appealing odds on the home team, a double outcome on Michel's charges seems a safe bet, especially taking into account that Barcelona has not been showing its best form in recent weeks.
Both teams have bright offensive performers, and each concedes more than one goal per game on average. So we are confidently betting on "both will score" - the total goals scored exceed 2.5.
Both sides preach an exclusively attacking style of football, so we are sure to see at least 10 corner kicks served.
The teams are not known for rough play and in the first round match gathered only three yellow cards between them. Betting on the total warnings under 4.5.
I will bet on an exact score of 2:2.
# | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | G | PTS | |
1 | Barcelona | 16 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 48:17 | 37 | |
2 | Real Madrid | 15 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 31:13 | 33 | |
3 | Atl. Madrid | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 26:8 | 32 | |
4 | Ath Bilbao | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 24:15 | 29 | |
5 | Villarreal | 14 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 27:23 | 26 | |
6 | Mallorca | 17 | 7 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 16:20 | 24 | |
7 | Osasuna | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | -3 | 20:23 | 23 | |
8 | Girona | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 22:20 | 22 | |
9 | Real Sociedad | 15 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 13:11 | 21 | |
10 | Celta Vigo | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | -2 | 25:27 | 21 | |
11 | Betis | 15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | -2 | 16:18 | 20 | |
12 | Sevilla | 15 | 5 | 4 | 6 | -5 | 14:19 | 19 | |
13 | Rayo Vallecano | 14 | 4 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 14:16 | 16 | |
14 | Las Palmas | 15 | 4 | 3 | 8 | -6 | 20:26 | 15 | |
15 | Leganes | 15 | 3 | 6 | 6 | -6 | 14:20 | 15 | |
16 | Alaves | 15 | 4 | 2 | 9 | -9 | 16:25 | 14 | |
17 | Getafe | 15 | 2 | 7 | 6 | -3 | 10:13 | 13 | |
18 | Espanyol | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | -12 | 15:27 | 13 | |
19 | Valencia | 13 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -8 | 13:21 | 10 | |
20 | Valladolid | 15 | 2 | 3 | 10 | -22 | 10:32 | 9 | |
1 | Real Madrid | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20:7 | 21 | |
2 | Ath Bilbao | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 14:7 | 18 | |
3 | Atl. Madrid | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14:3 | 17 | |
4 | Osasuna | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 15:10 | 17 | |
5 | Celta Vigo | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 15:9 | 17 | |
6 | Barcelona | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 19:5 | 15 | |
7 | Betis | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10:6 | 14 | |
8 | Girona | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 15:10 | 13 | |
9 | Sevilla | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7:8 | 13 | |
10 | Villarreal | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16:14 | 12 | |
11 | Mallorca | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7:10 | 12 | |
12 | Espanyol | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11:10 | 12 | |
13 | Alaves | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8:8 | 11 | |
14 | Getafe | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 7:4 | 11 | |
15 | Real Sociedad | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 9:9 | 10 | |
16 | Leganes | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6:7 | 10 | |
17 | Rayo Vallecano | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9:10 | 8 | |
18 | Valencia | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10:8 | 8 | |
19 | Las Palmas | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9:11 | 6 | |
20 | Valladolid | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 5:12 | 6 | |
1 | Barcelona | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 29:12 | 22 | |
2 | Atl. Madrid | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12:5 | 15 | |
3 | Villarreal | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 11:9 | 14 | |
4 | Real Madrid | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11:6 | 12 | |
5 | Mallorca | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 9:10 | 12 | |
6 | Ath Bilbao | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10:8 | 11 | |
7 | Real Sociedad | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4:2 | 11 | |
8 | Girona | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7:10 | 9 | |
9 | Las Palmas | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 11:15 | 9 | |
10 | Rayo Vallecano | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5:6 | 8 | |
11 | Osasuna | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5:13 | 6 | |
12 | Betis | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6:12 | 6 | |
13 | Sevilla | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7:11 | 6 | |
14 | Leganes | 8 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8:13 | 5 | |
15 | Celta Vigo | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 10:18 | 4 | |
16 | Alaves | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 8:17 | 3 | |
17 | Valladolid | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 5:20 | 3 | |
18 | Getafe | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3:9 | 2 | |
19 | Valencia | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3:13 | 2 | |
20 | Espanyol | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 4:17 | 1 |
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