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| Luis Suárez with ex Barça player Andreu Fontas of Celta Vigo | Image: FCB |
FC Barcelona take on Celta Vigo at the Estadio Balaidos on Sunday night as they look to continue their impressive fight towards retaining the Liga title three days after a hectic and narrow 2-1 UEFA Champions League win over Borussia Monchengladbach.
The Catalans haven’t quite have a huge dominance over their opponent in recent season as they lost to the team at least once in each of the last two seasons, with last season’s a great humiliation after the Catalans were beaten 4-1 on the evening.
This however, promises to be a different encounter entirely as both teams will be without some big names that were present in the 4-1 match up.
It is a special game for ciach Luis Enrique as the Asturian had a successful stint as manager of Celta Vigo where he was with Barça midfielder Rafinha Alcántara of whom might feature at the Balaídos. It is also a special game for Denis Suarez who was born close to Vigo and has been a fan, while Andreu Fontas will make a return to the Camp Nou, his former home.
TEAM NEWS
Coach Luís Enrique has named his 18-man squad for the game against Celta Vigo and he unsurprisingly left out Aleix Vidal once again, the former Sevilla man has now missed out in the club’s last 6 squad lists.
Samuel Umtiti and Lionel Messi are still recovering from injuries and didn’t make the match squad. Apart from these two and of course Aleix Vidal and Jordi Masip who are out of the squad list, all other 18 Barça players are ready to feature.
For Celta Vigo, they will miss Nolito who was a crucial figure for them in this fixture last season as the player now plays for Manchester City. Out through injuries are Carles Planas and key man Fabian Orellana.
CELTA VIGO VS FC BARCELONA
Date: Sunday, 2 October, 2016
Time: 8:45pm CET
Venue: Estádio Balaídos, Vigo
Referee: Iñaki Bikandi Garrido
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
FC Barcelona 6-1 Celta Vigo
Celta Vigo 4-1 FC Barcelona
Celta Vigo 0-1 FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona 0-1 Celta Vigo
FC Barcelona 3-0 Celta Vigo
FORM GUIDE
Celta Vigo: DDWWW
Barcelona: WWDWW
Predicted Celta Vigo Lineup: Alvarez; Hugo Mallo, Sergi Gomez, Cabral, Castro, Hernández, Andreu Fontas; Wass, Sisto; Rossi, Iago Aspas
Predicted Barcelona Lineup: Marc-Andre Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets, Andrés Iniesta; Arda Turan, Luis Suárez, Neymar
BarcaLens Prediction: Would be a tough game no doubt,Celta Vigo will cause a lot of problems but I expect Luis Enrique and his players to tackle it well – Celta Vigo 1-2 Barcelona
