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| Barcelona vs Granada | Image: FCB |
FC Barcelona return to La Liga action on Saturday night after a thrilling 3-2 win over Valencia last weekend as they look to continue on the right path to defending their title when they host Granada at the Camp Nou.
Granada was the team Barça won the league against last season after a hat-trick from Luis Suárez gave the Catalans a comfortable 3-0 win on the final day to give them their second consecutive La Liga crown. Barça will play against the Andalusian team on Saturday night, hoping they find it as easy as they had it in their last couple of games against them.
Granada are currently bottom of the table and are enduring a terrible campaign so far getting only three points out of a possible 27 and have conceded the most goals (23) in the league this season. They recently fired Paco Jémez from his duty as first team coach after a bad start to the season which hasn’t improved since his dismissal.
TEAM NEWS
FC Barcelona will go into the game with a long list of players sidelined through injuries. The Catalans will be missing no less than 4 first team players for the game as the likes of Captain Andrés Iniesta, Gérard Piqué, Jordi Alba and Jérémy Mathieu are all out through injuries. The fitness of Defender Aleix Vidal is also not certain after the right-back picked up a knock prior to Barça’s Supercopa de Catalunya loss against Espanyol on Tuesday night.
Barça welcome back Arda Turan from injury and the star is likely to start in place of Andrés Iniesta on Saturday, as likely as André Gomes and Denis Suárez.
Rafinha Alcántara and Jasper Cillessen also trained normally with the rest of the sqaud on Thursday morning and will be available for selection for the game.
FC BARCELONA VS GRANADA
Date: Saturday, 29 October, 2016
Time: 8:45pm CET
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona
Referee: Juan Martinez Munuera
PREVIOUS FIVE MEETINGS
Granada 0-3 Barcelona
Barcelona 4-0 Granada
Granada 1-3 Barcelona
Barcelona 6-0 Granada
Granada 1-0 Barcelona
FORM GUIDE
Barcelona: WLWWW
Granada: LLLLD
Predicted Barcelona Lineup: Marc Andre Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Javier Mascherano, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Digne; Ivan Rakitic, Andre Gomes, Denis Suarez; Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar
Predicted Granada Lineup: Guillermo Ochoa; Tito, Ruben Vezo, Dani Lomban, Gabriel Silva; Isaac Cuenca, Angban, Uche Henry Agbo, Andreas Pereira; Kravets, Ezequiel Ponce
BarcaLens Prediction: Although Barça are missing a lot of stars, I expect the game to be an easy one.. Barcelona 5-0 Granada