Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images
The league leaders return to action hoping to start a brutal schedule with a good win and some confidence
CD Leganés (20th, 6pts) vs FC Barcelona (1st, 25pts)
Competition/Round: 2019-20 La Liga, Matchday 14*
*Due to the postponement of El Clásico, this is Barcelona’s 13th match of the season.
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Arthur, Sergi Roberto, Nélson Semedo, Jordi Alba, Clément Lenglet (out)
Leganés Outs & Doubts: Alexander Szymanowski, Marc Navarro, Recio, Kévin Rodrigues (out), Christian Rivera, Rubén Pérez (doubt)
Date/Time: Saturday, November 23, 2019, 1pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 12pm GMT (UK), 7am ET, 4am PT (USA), 5.30pm IST (India)
Venue: Estadio Municipal de Butarque, Madrid, Spain
Referee: Santiago Jaime Latre
How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport 7 (Nigeria), Not Available (India), Movistar LaLiga (Spain), others
How to stream: FuboTV (USA), beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), Premier Player (UK), Facebook Live (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following the completion of the final two-week international break of the year, Barcelona are back in action in La Liga with a road trip to Madrid to face bottom of the table Leganés, who have just six points form their first 13 games and look very bad at the back, conceding 22 goals, second-worst in the league.
On paper this should be easy for the two-time defending champions and leaders, but this is Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona and no game is easy, especially away from home. But if there’s a time for Barça to finally show some life on the road and get a big win against a bad team, this is the time: Leganés will be the first opponent on what is going to be a BRUTAL schedule for Barça, with crucial Champions League matches and three incredibly tough league games against Atlético Madrid, Real Sociedad and Real Madrid.
If everything goes south and disaster happens, Barça will finish the month of December in the Europa League and a possible six or seven points behind the leaders in La Liga. And the craziest thing is that this tragic scenario may be the most realistic considering the quality of opponents, the amount of games in a short period, the injuries to key players in the team, and the poor coaching that continues to hold this team back.
If Barça want the rest of the season to mean anything, they need to win big and build confidence against Leganés. If there’s any doubt going forward, not only from fans but within the squad itself, then we could be in for a run of bad results we haven’t seen in a long, long time at this club. Time to step up or step aside, Ernesto. And you, Bartomeu. And you, players. This mess is on all of you. Don’t make it worse.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Wagué, Piqué, Umtiti, Firpo; Rakitic, De Jong, Vidal; Dembélé, Messi, Griezmann
Leganés (3-4-1-2): Cuéllar; Siovas, Bustinza, Omeruo; Rosales, Mesa, Rivera, Silva; Rodríguez; En-Nesyri, Braithwaite
PREDICTION
This is a match we should dominate and win easily, but we won’t because the coach: 2-0 Barça, boring and uninspiring. Yay!
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