PREVIEW | Celta Vigo v FC Barcelona

After a crucial 1-0 win at Dynamo Kyiv midweek, which has left Barça with a very strong chance indeed of making it into the last sixteen of the Champions League, attention now switches back to La Liga and an early Saturday fixture away to Celta Vigo (4.15pm CET).

How it stands

Following back-to-back defeats to Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, Barça start this weekend’s fixtures in ninth place, nine points adrift of leaders Real Sociedad. Tuesday’s victory in Ukraine was the first on the road this season, but with two draws and two defeats, Barça are still looking for their first away win in the domestic championship.

Interim coach Sergi Barjuan barely had any time to prepare for his first league game in charge, but now he has been with the players for over a week, and the result in Kiev was a much-needed boost for morale.

And their hosts today are a team that has not got off to the best of starts this season. Celta have a 3-2-7 record and currently lie 15^th in the table. But games between Barça and the Galicians have produced all kinds of results in recent years. The last fourteen meetings have seen six wins for Barça, five for Celta and three draws.

So, Celta are in the habit of springing surprises in this fixture, and given their current position, the blaugrana can’t afford to let it happen again.

Last five games

Nov 2 (UCL) Dynamo Kyiv 0-1 Barça
Oct 28 (LIGA) Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Barça
Oct 25 (LIGA) Barça 1-2 Real Madrid
Oct 20 (UCL) Barça 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv 0
Oct 17 (LIGA) Barça 3-1 Valencia

Nov 1 (LIGA) Rayo Vallecano 0-0 Celta
Oct 28 (LIGA) Celta 0-2 Real Sociedad
Oct 25 (LIGA) Getafe 0-3 Celta
Oct 17 (LIGA) Celta 0-1 Sevilla
Oct 3 (LIGA) Elche 1-0 Celta

Team news

After returning from injury against Dynamo, Ousmane Dembélé picked up a hamstring injury in training on Wednesday and is again unavailable. Sergiño Dest is also out with back pain, and reserve goalkeeper Neto has a fever. This only adds to the difficulties in a squad that is also missing Gerard Piqué, Sergio Agüero, Martin Braithwaite, Pedri and Sergi Roberto.

Barça B players Ez Abde and goalkeeper Lazar Carevic have been drafted into the team: 

Celta are also missing key players. Their top scorer last season, Santi Mina, is injured, and one of their top playmakers, Brais Méndez, is suspended.

Did you know?

Iago Aspas has a habit of scoring against Barça. He has seven in total, six of those against Ter Stegen, which is the joint highest for anyone against the German stopper in La Liga. The now-retired Aritz Aduriz of Athletic Club also beat Ter Stegen six times.

Sergi Barjuan faced Celta once before, in 2015 when he was in charge of Almeria. That game ended 2-2, with the Galician goals netted by Nolito and Santi Mina.

Balaídos is the ground that has produced the fewest Barça wins since the 2015/16 season, just the 3-0 victory last year following five years of failures to return with the full three points.

Barça are hoping to avoid losing three away league games in a row for the first time since 2002.

A curious fact – Celta is the only team in La Liga that has not been ahead in a single home fixture this season, and Barça is the only team that has never been leading away from home.

Last five meetings

16/05/21 (LIGA) Barça 1-2 Celta
01/10/20 (LIGA) Celta 0-3 Barça
27/06/20 (LIGA) Celta 2-2 Barça
09/11/19 (LIGA) Barça 4-1 Celta
04/05/19 (LIGA) Celta 2-0 Barça

Sergi says

"The players have done their talking on the pitch. But they tomorrow we’re playing at a very difficult ground … If we win tomorrow, the players will be in better shape for future challenges. There were players laughing in training today. That’s called group spirit.”

“They need to be valiant like they were in Kiev. They’ll be made to run a lot in this game and it’s a ground where we’ve had problems over the years. They have a lot of good midfielders and it’ll be a very different match to the one in Kiev. We need to force them into making mistakes.”

“We were happy with Dembélé after Kiev, but after a day of rest he got injured again. These things are part of a player’s life. If he hadn’t have got injured, nobody would be talking about it.”