One eye will be on Champions League play midweek, but for Barcelona, winning a home match against Valencia on Sunday is critical in the race to gain ground in La Liga. Trailing Real Madrid by seven points for the La Liga title has been the one poor mark on Hansi Flick’s first season in charge of Barcelona. While they can’t overturn that deficit alone, Barcelona need to win the games that they should and this is one of them facing a team in the relegation zone. Winless in their last four league matches, Sunday needs to be when that comes to an end to have a shot at the title.
Here’s our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Sunday, Jan 26 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys — Barcelona, Spain
- Live stream: ESPN+
- Odds: Barcelona -525; Draw +600; Valencia +1200
Storylines
Barcelona: Flick will still be without Dani Olmo and Inigo Martinez for this match but outside of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Barcelona have a mostly clean injury list. After a poor showing in Champions League play, it does make sense for Flick to make a change at keeper with Inaki Pena coming in for Wojciech Szczesny after his rough midweek outing.
Barcelona predicted XI: Inaki Pena, Alex Balde, Pau Cubarsi, Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, Marc Casado, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Gavi, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski
Valencia: Up against it, Valencia need to bring everything that they can to this match to move up the table. Unbeaten in their last four matches in all competitions, Valencia are closer to safety but this will be a tougher challenge than drawing Sevilla or defeating Real Sociedad.
Valencia predicted XI: Giorgi Marmardashvili, Jose Gaya, Yarek Gasiorowski, Cesar Tarrega, Dimitri Foulquier, Enzo Barrenchea, Javier Guerra, Luis Rioja, Andre Almeida, Diego Lopez, Hugo Duro
Prediction
With Lewandowski leading the line, Barcelona’s attack can’t be slowed down but defensively, Valencia will find the back of the net as well but it won’t be enough. Pick: Barcelona 3, Valencia 1
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