Barcelona vs Deportivo Alaves

Barcelona’s quest to defend their La Liga title continues at the Estadio Olimpico against bottom-half strugglers Deportivo Alaves.

Barcelona missed a golden opportunity to seal their first Champions League knockout progression in three years, going down 1-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek. Xavi Hernandez’s men were lucky to beat Real Sociedad 1-0 in the previous round, courtesy of Ronald Araujo’s stoppage-time winner, narrowly bouncing back from a 2-1 heartbreak against Real Madrid in their last home league outing. But except for worsening their record in El Clasico, the ‘Blaugrana’ have gone from strength to strength on home turf this season, winning all five remaining league matches at the Olimpico by a combined score of 12-2. Despite drawing 1-1 in the most recent top-flight H2H they hosted, Barcelona should be confident about coming out on top as they had won three previous such fixtures via at least a three-goal margin.

On the other hand, Deportivo Alaves continued to build momentum after a confidence-boosting 10-0 Copa del Rey win over lower-league Deportivo Murcia with a hard-earned 1-0 home triumph over La Liga basement boys Almeria last weekend. Halting a seven-game winless league run (D3, L4) steered ‘El Glorioso’ further away from the drop zone, creating a five-point buffer from 18th-placed Celta Vigo. However, to say Luis Garcia Plaza’s men have stuttered on the road this season would be an understatement. In addition to going winless on all six La Liga travels (D2, L4), they’ve scored a meager average of 0.5 goals per game, casting further doubt on their pipe dream of beating Barcelona in Catalonia for the first time since September 2016.