This Saturday, Barcelona will play their first home match of the season against Malaga, a side that surely knew how to hurt Los Blaugranas last season. Javi Gracia's team will try to repeat their performance from the past semester, when Los Boquerones entered the pitch as the proverbial victim, but ended up victorious against Luis Enrique's mighty Barcelona.
Even though the overall record between the two sides shows a clear advantage for Los Blaugranas (52 games won, 14 draws & 10 losses), Malaga showed how to stop the MSN attack & Co. during the team's league matches, drawing the first game with a 0-0 scoreline, while defeating them 1-0 at Camp Nou. With most of the same players currently performing for Los Blanquiazules, Gracia will try to make his team prove that they can't be beaten by one of the greatest teams in history.
Barcelona
Los Blaugranas entered the last game against Athletic with a series of doubts, given their recent Super Copa loss facing Los Leones. Once they defeated them thanks to Luis Suarez's volley, coach Luis Enrique will have a few key players available once more, such as Neymar and Jeremy Mathieu. The Brazilian wingman recovered from the mumps and is expected to make an appearance, whilst Mathieu returns after serving a one-match ban.
Nevertheless, Los Blaugranas will not have Gerard Pique available after picking up a four-match ban, with this game being his second away from the pitch. Dani Alves, Douglas, Adriano and Sergio Busquets are also expected to miss the game, since all of them are recovering from a series of injuries.
Coach Luis Enrique spoke ahead of this match, praising their opponents for what they did to them last year.
Málaga
Los Boquerones started off the season with a 0-0 draw against Sevilla, but that doesn't seem to bother them that much. Coach Javi Gracia knows that his side will show their best performance against opponents like Barcelona, even though the challege is tougher with only one game played in the season.
"We will try to show once more how balancedour team can be, and we hope that balance allows us to get points in a turf that's really hard to conquer. We did it last year, and we are very proud of it, but that's history. We have to focus on the future, and we travel to Barcelona with the illusion of making a good impression," Gracia stated.
Flavio Ferreira and Ignacio Camacho will not be available to start the game due to injury, but center back Weligton could make the starting lineup after finishing his healing process. Nevertheless, Gracia may be thinking about starting the same men that earned their spot against Sevilla.
Although Málaga has some good memories from their recent visit to Camp Nou, they must be aware of their problems when they play away games. Considering only La Liga games, Málaga has lost six out of the last seven matches played away from their stadium, a number that has to change if Gracia wants his team to reach European football spots when the season comes to a close.
Team sheets for Barcelona vs Málaga
Barcelona's Starting XI: Bravo, Rakitic, Sergio, Iniesta, Suárez, Messi, Neymar Jr, Mascherano, Alba, S. Roberto, Vermaelen.
Malaga's Starting XI: Kameni; Rosales, Angeleri, Weligton , Torres, Horta Recio, Tissone, Juankar, Amrabat, Cop.
Barcelona's subs: Ter Stegen, Rafinha, Bartra, Munir, Sandro, Mathieu, Gumbau.
Málaga's subs: Ochoa, Albentosa, Espinho, Charles, Duda, Boka, Juanpi.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Live TV coverage and streaming in United States
Follow the game on-the-go
Download our iOS and Android apps to follow soccer on-the-go. It comes packed with features - live scores, fixtures, results, tables, line-ups, stats, TV schedule and much more! Sorry, no live streaming within the app.
