PREVIEW | Real Betis v FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona bounced back from disappointment in the Spanish Super Cup by beating Unionistas of Salamanca in the Copa del Rey on Thursday, and on Sunday at 6.30pm they are away to Real Betis in their first Liga fixture for a fortnight.

Of the three competitions they are still involved in, this is the one where Barça are in the greatest difficulty right now. There's an 8-point gap between themselves and the top of table, and they really can't afford to let it grow any wider. But their next game pits them away to a side that has only lost one of its last 15 league matches. So it's not going to be easy, especially without a full strength squad.

How things stand

With leaders Real Madrid away in Saudi Arabia, Girona were able to move to the top of the table last week. But they did thanks to a single point away to winless Almeria, when what they really needed to do was come back with the full set of three.

Barça will now be hoping that Almeria can help them out again when they visit the Santiago Bernabeu in Sunday's 4.15pm CET kick-off. Because as long as Real Madrid keep winning, Barça can do nothing to reduce the deficit.

Girona, meanwhile, will be hoping to do much better against another struggling team when they host Sevilla in the late kick-off at 9pm CET.

Team news

Gavi, Marcos Alonso, Marc-André ter Stegen, Iñigo Martínez, Raphinha and João Cancelo all miss out once again to injury, and matters are not helped, especially in defence, now that Andreas Chistensen is also unavailable with a bruised right foot.

On the plus side, both Ronald Araujo and Lamine Yamal are both back after sitting the cup tie out with suspensions.

Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini has concerns of his own, with two former Barça men, Ez Abde and Chadi Riad, both away representing Morocco at the African Cup of Nations, and three other players with a blaugrana past, Marc Bartra, Claudio Bravo and Juan Miranda, all side-lined by injury.

Head to head

Barça have a fabulous record of late against Real Betis. They haven't lost on any of their last 12 league visits to the Benito Villamarín, winning nine of those games.

And when counting both home and away fixtures, Barça have won nine of the last ten meetings with the green-and-whites. The only blot in that record was the 1-0 win for the Andalusians at Spotify Camp Nou in December 2021, the first loss of the Xavi era.

The last two encounters, both in Barcelona, ended with the Catalans scoring a total of nine goals to no reply. At the Estadi Olimpic earlier this season, Barça romped home to the tune of a 5-0 victory. Portuguese duo João Cancelo and João Félix both scored their first goals for the club in that game, and Ferran Torres finally ended a long drought for the team in terns of goals scored from direct free kicks. Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha got the other two.

So, at least as far as recent history is concerned, Barça should be firm favourites. However...

Betis form guide

Since that 5-goal trouncing in September, Betis have played 15 games and have only lost one, 2-1 at Celta in their first game of 2024. That's impressive form, but nine of those 15 games have ended in draws, so they haven't been amassing as many points as they perhaps could have, although they are still a very respectable seventh in the table.

Their Europa League adventure was going well until they lost their last two games to Sparta Prague and Rangers, meaning the Czechs and Scots progressed and Betis instead dropped down to the Conference League, where they'll be facing Dynamo Zagreb

And after losing at Alavés in the round of 32, the Copa del Rey is already over for Betis this season.

Xavi says

The 5-0 victory against the Andalusians was, says the FC Barcelona coach, one of the finest performances of the season so far. On Sunday, he wants to see something similar...