PREVIEW: FC Barcelona v Betis

Real Betis arrive at Camp Nou in the unusual position of being ahead of Barça in the LaLiga table, albeit the Andalusians have played two games more. Former Barça players Marc Bartra and Cristian Tello return to the club, whilst Junior Firpo and Carles Aleñá could feature against the verdiblancos, where both have spent time in the recent past.

Last five meetings

09/02/20 Betis 2 Barça 3 (de Jong, Busquets, Lenglet)
25/08/19 Barça 5 (Griezmann 2, Pérez, Alba, Vidal) Betis 2
17/03/19 Betis 1 Barça 4 (Messi 3, Suárez)
11/11/18 Barça 3 (Messi 2, Vidal) Betis 4
21/01/18 Betis 0 Barça 5 (Rakitic, Messi 2, Suárez 2)

Did you know?

Barça have only lost one of their last 18 LaLiga games against Real Betis (W14 D3), but that defeat came at Camp Nou, in their last meeting in the month of November in the competition (3-4 in 2018).

Nabil Fekir has scored in each of his two LaLiga games against Barça, scoring in both matches last season.

Real Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini has won just one of his nine visits to Barça in LaLiga (D2 L6), 2-1 with Villarreal in March 2008, losing each of his last four.

Barça are winless in their last two LaLiga games at Camp Nou (D1 L1) – the last time they failed to win in three consecutive home league games was in December 2003 (D2 L1), under Frank Rijkaard.

Barça skipper Lionel Messi has been involved in 29 goals in 20 appearances against Real Betis in LaLiga (19 goals and 10 assists). The Argentinian has had a hand in at least two goals in each of his last four meetings with them (seven goals and four assists), and has scored two or more goals against them on no fewer than eight occasions.

Real Betis’ Cristian Tello has scored four goals in eight LaLiga games this season, including a brace in his last match against Elche, equalling his best tally for the Green-And-Whites in a top-flight season (also four in 2017/18 and 2018/19).

Barça have scored at least one goal in each of their last 24 LaLiga home games against Real Betis, scoring two or more in 20 of those matches. The last time they failed to score in a league home game against them was back in 1988 (0-1).

Ansu Fati made his Barça debut in the 5-2 defeat of Betis last season, coming on as a 77^th minute substitute for Carles Pérez.

Last five

UCL Barça 2-1 Dynamo Kiev
LIGA Alavés 1-1 Barça
UCL Juventus 0-2 Barça
LIGA Barça 1-3 Real Madrid
UCL Barça 1-2 Ferencváros

LIGA Betis 3-1 Elche
LIGA Atlético Madrid 2-0 Betis
LIGA Betis 0-3 Real Sociedad
LIGA Valencia 0-2 Betis
LIGA Getafe 3-0 Betis

Team news 

Ronald Koeman has named a 23-man squad for the match with Mingueza from Barça B back on the list after recovering from injury. The full list is as follows: 

Ter Stegen, Dest, Piqué, Sergio, Aleñá, Griezmann, Pjanic, Braithwaite, Messi, O. Dembélé, Riqui Puig, Neto, Lenglet, Pedri, Trincao, Jordi Alba, S. Roberto, F. De Jong, Ansu Fati, Junior, O. Mingueza, Konrad and Arnau Tenas.  

Araujo, Coutinho and Umtiti, are all missing due to injury. 

Koeman says

“It’s a complicated match where we have to be in good shape. We need to be much more focused, dedicated and well organised.”

“The season is very long. We need to work match to match and we need some calm.”

“We’ve got players that always look for the pass and we’ve talked about shooting outside the area especially. It’s always nice to get an assist, but it’s also up to the players to take responsibility to shoot, because if you don’t shoot, you don’t score.”