PREVIEW | Barça v Valladolid
League football returns to Camp Nou after three weeks, and Barça play the match corresponding to the 29th day of the league championship against Valladolid (Monday, April 5, 9.00pm CEST). Ronald Koeman's side have 62 points in the league and will look to add three more to continue pressuring the leader, Atlético Madrid.
The opponent
Valladolid are currently in 16th position in LaLiga with 27 points, and in the last four league games, they haven't lost (three draws and one victory).
Despite the Blanquivioleta's numerous injuries (Orellana, Roberto Jiménez, Joaquín Fernández, Míchel Herrero, Luis Pérez, Kike Pérez, Kiko Olivas, Jota and Raúl Carnero) Sergio González's team still has great players such as Olaza, Roque Mesa , Óscar Plano, Sergi Guardiola and Weissman, among others, and will always be comptetitive. Marcos André and Hervías should also return from injury.
Coach: Sergio González
League position: 16th
League results: 5W-12D-11L
Top scorer: Weissman and Orellana (4 goals)
Ex-Barça players in the team: Masip
Precedents
Earlier this season, the Catalans won 3-0 at José Zorilla, with goals from Lenglet, Braithwaite and Leo Messi.
As for Valladolid's last visit to the Camp Nou, Barça won 5-1 last season with goals from Messi (2), Lenglet, Vidal and Suárez, Kiko Olivas with the consolation for the visitors.
Did you know?
- Leo Messi has participated in the most goals in the five major leagues in Europe in 2021: 16 goals and seven assists, 23 in total.
- The Argentinian has also participated in eight goals in his last four games against Real Valladolid in the league (four goals and four assists).
- Sergio González has lost all seven games in the league against FC Barcelona as coach of Real Valladolid.
- If Barça don't lose against Valladolid, the Catalans will have gone a full round undefeated in the league. Their last loss was in December against Cádiz (2-1).
- If Messi scores, he will have reached 30 goals in all competitions for the 13th consecutive season. He currently has 29 (23 in the League, five in the Champions League and one in the Copa del Rey).
View from the bench
"We expect a difficult match where we need to be ready," Ronald Koeman said in his press conference on Sunday. "We need to impose our rhythm and continue doing what we've been doing lately. Despite the break that we've had, the players have returned very upbeat and very keen to play tomorrow's match. We know our situation and we need to win."
The squad
Piqué, Neto, Coutinho, Sergi Roberto and Ansu Fati all miss the game through injury.
The full squad is therefore: Ter Stegen, Dest, R. Araujo, Sergio, Griezmann, Pjanic, Braithwaite, Messi, O. Dembélé, Riqui Puig, Lenglet, Pedri, Trincao, Jordi Alba, Matheus, F. De Jong, Umtiti, Junior, Iñaki Peña, Ilaix Moriba, O. Mingueza, Konrad and Arnau Tenas.