MATCH PREVIEW: FC Barcelona v Valencia
After La Liga wins against Levante and Real Sociedad, the blaugranes will be looking to round off a great week in the domestic league with a win against Saturday's visitors Valencia.
Ronald Koeman's team welcome los ché at Camp Nou at 4.15pm CET with the objective of making it three out of three at home this week in the league. Barça will be looking to cut the gap between themselves and the league leaders Atlético Madrid whilst Valencia will be aiming for a second successive La Liga victory over the blaugranes.
The opponents
Coach: Javi Gracia. The coach will face Barça for the seventh time having suffered three defeats with Osasuna, two with Málaga, a draw with the side from Pamplona and a win with the Andalusians.
Goalscorer: Carlos Soler, leads with five goal followed by Manu Vallejo with four and Maxi Gómez with three.
Standings: With three wins, five draws and five defeats, Valencia find themselves in 12th place in the table with 14 points. Despite being just three points above the drop zone, Javi Gracia's team have beaten high flyers Real Sociedad and Real Madrid so far this season.
Form: Valencia come to Camp Nou after having needed extra time in their midweek Copa del Rey clash to defeat lower league Terrassa 4-2. The win was their first in four matches having lost two and drawn one in their last three league games.
A favourite of Messi
In the league the Argentine has scored no less than 24 goals in 27 goals against the club from down the Mediterranean coast.
Koeman's squad
Ter Stegen, Dest, R. Araujo, Sergio, Aleñá, Griezmann, Pjanic, Braithwaite, Messi, Riqui Puig, Neto, Coutinho, Lenglet, Pedri, Trincao, Jordi Alba, Matheus, F. De Jong, Umtiti, Junior, O. Mingueza, Konrad and Arnau Tenas. Out through injury are Piqué, O. Dembélé, S. Roberto and Ansu Fati.
It will be an important day for the Barça coach Ronald Koeman as he was in charge at Valencia for the second half of the 2007/08 season in which he helped them to a Copa del Rey victory.