Sporting Gijon – Prepared for the show?

A loss for 10th place Sporting Gijon against Barcelona could take the Rojiblancos down to a position as deep as the 13th place under Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, and Racing Santander – depending on these teams’ result in their respective matches on Sunday.

Sporting Gijon do not have more than 24 points, and allowing theirselves to be controlled by Barcelona this weekend could bring them disastrous effects. The mid-table side was only capable of stealing a single victory in its last 7 league meetings, and such a negative fact is far from raising Gijon’s chances of triumphing over the league leaders.

Sporting were beaten 3-0 in the opening day of La Liga at the Camp Nou, and the worse thing was that in addition to their disgracing result, they were pounded by a large number of Barcelona fans who accused them of being illegally aggressive during the encounter.

Perhaps, aggression will not be their best choice to overpower the defending Spanish champions on Saturday evening, knowing how good the Blaugrana are in set-pieces.

Barcelona – In perfect shape

Barca are probably in the best of shapes, presently. Their recent league games have brought their power to light, having scored 7 goals in their 2 last matches and conceded zero.

Precisely, Lionel Messi seems to be the man of the moment, with an amazing display which has made him the scorer of 3 goals against Sevilla and Valladolid. Coincidently, just after Messi got his 100th goal for his club, Barcelona went on to make a first-time Catalan record in their next encounter, remaining lossless in the first half of the league season.

The good news for Barcelona is that their top players are not facing any physical obstacle, and they look set in achieving their subsequent mission away to Sporting Gijon. It will be a great attainment for Coach Pep Guardiola and his boys if ever the Catalans were to extend their unbeaten record to 20 matches, and indeed, the fact that they could reach their target this weekend is almost a certainty from the prospect of a Barcelona fan.

The players of the successful club – which was however disqualified from the Spanish Cup earlier this month – seem poised to take on any challenge; and speaking of their following fixture against Gijon, there is no doubt that confidence will be at its highest level among the defending Spanish kings.

Sporting Gijon vs Barcelona: Quick Analysis

Afresh, complaisance will not be a helpful alternative for Barcelona, and Sporting Gijon are well aware of that. In this case, trying to play at full pace could be obliging for the Rojiblancos who will want to dominate at home in the early minutes of the game, but nevertheless, reacting too rapidly without much coolness and precision could lead to a heavy blow in favor of the league leaders.

Barcelona too might go on and re-use the method they applied against Real Valladolid last weekend, when they used speed and strange kicks to trample their opponents 3-0 away from home. Xavi Hernandez, Daniel Alves, and Lionel Messi were all sources of the perfect combinations in attack, and so their creative techniques might again be needed to produce something positive for Barcelona.

Noticeably, nice contributions from these men – assisted by their team mates including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andres Iniesta – will let them extend their lead at the top of the standings to 8 points temporarily.

The other match

On that same night, Real Madrid face Deportivo La Coruna at the Estadio Riazor, and Madrid fans, as well as Barcelona fans know that a winless match for Real may lock the Blaugrana’s high psychology.