FC Barcelona can make it ten wins from their last ten matches tomorrow with a win away at La Liga’s strugglers, UD Levante in Sunday’s early kick-off. The fixture seems like a mismatch on paper; Levante are toiling away, rooted at the bottom of the table while Barça are in arguably their best form of the season, eviscerating all who have the audacity to stand before them. A midweek destruction of Gary Neville’s Valencia CF created headlines around the world, whereas in the grand scheme of things, a win in tomorrow’s match would make for a better story.
After all, as mentioned earlier it would be our tenth successive win in all competitions, clearly an impressive streak to start 2016. It would also represent Luis Enrique’s 80th win in his 100th match in charge of FC Barcelona, by far the best record of Blaugrana manager throughout history. For comparison, Pep Guardiola reached 71 wins when his side defeated Racing Santander in February 2010, and Lucho has managed at least eight more...
It’s a frightening record, and when you consider that he has a chance to equal another Guardiola record should his side remain unbeaten tomorrow, it begs the question of 1) just who can stop FC Barcelona, and 2) at what point do the majority of Culés start to talk about Enrique in the same deifying tones that are currently reserved for Guardiola and Johan Cruyff?
Of course, Levante will be looking to spoil the occasion for Enrique tomorrow and they could do just that; we’ve drawn four of the nine matches that we’ve played at the Ciutat de Valencia after all. Admittedly, we’ve won the other five by an average of over three goals a match.
In other words, all you gamblers out there should probably back a two-goal handicap, and cover with the draw.
Who am I kidding, it’s going to be another massacre isn’t it?
TEAM NEWS
BARCELONA
Enrique named his squad earlier today, and there were no surprises in his selection; Douglas, Adriano, Sandro and Thomas Vermaelen have all been left at home, with the usual group making the relatively short trip down to Valencia. With a midweek Copa del Rey tie to think about, rotation will be on Enrique’s mind at some stage this week, although given our aggregate lead in the Copa, it’s less likely that he’ll rotate too heavily tomorrow.
That’ll mean a start for Claudio Bravo, who will be hoping to get back into the habit of keeping clean sheets, as his run of four straight La Liga clean sheets before and after the festive break has been followed by two games without a shutout. Not that he’s been playing badly; far from it – Bravo was excellent last weekend against Atletico Madrid and pulled off one incredible stop to deny Antoine Griezmann what would have been a certain goal. Rather, it’s more that with the side in the current form they are, there are just so few areas with room for improvement.
In defense, I anticipate that we will see Dani Alves start at right-back, with Gerard Piqué and Javier Mascherano likely to join him in the backline. I’m contemplating whether it might be favourable to rest Sergio Busquets tomorrow and move Mascherano forward to pivote, but I’d rather keep him in the line-up and perhaps give Sergi Samper some minutes in midweek. Jordi Alba is the only bonafide left-back in the squad, so expect him to start, potentially with Jeremy Mathieu replacing him in the second half.
Sergio Busquets keeps getting better and better, so he’s one of the first on the teamsheet and given the job he is doing protecting the defense and intervening in play, Enrique has a little more flexibility when it comes to selecting the other two interiors. He’s even been liberated to start Arda Turan and Andrés Iniesta together, two typically offensive-minded midfielders who combined to great effect in midweek. Tomorrow, I suspect he goes a little more industrious and favours Sergi Roberto and Ivan Rakitić, although at this stage, any selection is a good one.
Then we have that strikeforce; fresh off scoring four goals against Valencia, Luis Suarez will be looking to regain sole leadership of the Pichichi race, while Neymar might be hoping to get back in amongst the goals to keep pace with Suarez in the same race. Lionel Messi grabbed a hat-trick against Valencia, and also looks to be getting back to his best, which in turn is another terrifying thought: we’ve been this good, this dominant...and yet Messi still has room for improvement?
May the heavens have mercy on us all...
LEVANTE
Let’s start with the positives: Levante have won their last two home matches against Las Palmas and Rayo Vallecano. Generally, their home form isn’t actually that bad, as there are a few La Liga teams with worse record at home so far this season, including Real Betis, Granada and Sporting Gijon. The bad news is that they struggle for goals. They struggle for points as a result, and they are notoriously slow starters.
You thought Barcelona were a bit slow out of the gate in the first-half of their matches when we started the season? Well, Levante have scored just once at home before the half-time interval, that’s easily the worst record in the league. Admittedly, Barcelona have only scored four before half-time away from home, so there’s that to consider as well.
The addition of Giuseppe Rossi at the end of the winter transfer window represented one of my favourite transfers of the window, and he looked good with his goal against Sevilla last weekend, even if his side ended up losing 3-1 at the Ramon Sánchez Pizjuan. Levante will be without their first choice keeper tomorrow, as well as their captain, Juanfran among others – so former Barcelona assistant coach, Rubi, will certainly have his work cut out for him in securing a positive result tomorrow.
FORM GUIDE
Barcelona: WWWWWW
Levante: LLWLWL
LAST MEETING
FC Barcelona 4-1 Levante UD – 20th September 2015 – La Liga
A brace from Lionel Messi wrapped up the three points for the Blaugrana, after Marc Bartra and Neymar had opened the scoring following a goalless first-half.
LIKELY LINE-UPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Bravo; Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Rakitić, Roberto; Messi, Suarez, Neymar
Levante (4-2-3-1): Marino; Lopez, Trujillo, Navarro, Tono; Simao, Verza; Xumetra, Rossi, Morales; Deyverson
MATCH PREDICTION
Not even close, 4-1 Barça, with Deyverson grabbing the goal for the hosts.
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