PREVIEW | FC Barcelona v Alavés

FC Barcelona enters a new era on Saturday at 9.00pm CEST as caretaker manager Sergi Barjuan takes charge of the team for the first time. The 49-year-old, who did such a wonderful job at left-back for the senior side from 1993–2002, and who until now was coaching the reserves, was announced as Ronald Koeman’s interim replacement on Thursday.

He’s taking over the duties after a difficult last few days. Defeats at home to Real Madrid and then away to Rayo Vallecano mean the blaugrana go into the weekend ninth in the table, nine points adrift of the top of the table.

The Camp Nou is the venue and the opposition for his first game are Alavés, a side for whom 2021/22 has not get off to the best of starts either. The Basques only scored two goals in their first eight games, but things have taken a turn for the better this week, with two wins (against Cádiz and Elche) ahead of their visit to the Catalan capital.

Last five games

Oct 28 (LIGA) Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Barça
Oct 25 (LIGA) Barça 1-2 Real Madrid
Oct 20 (UCL) Barça 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv 0
Oct 17 (LIGA) Barça 3-1 Valencia
Oct 2 (LIGA) Atlético Madrid 2-0 Barça

Oct 26 (LIGA) Alavés 1-0 Elche
Oct 23 (LIGA) Cadiz 0-2 Alavés
Oct 18 (LIGA) Alavés 0-1 Betis
Oct 1 (LIGA) Athletic Club 1-0 Alavés
Sep 25 (LIGA) Alavés 1-0 Atlético Madrid

Reunions

Two team-mates from the USMNT will be going head-to-head in this one. Barça full-back Sergiño Dest will be lining up against Matt Miazga, a product of the New York Red Bulls academy who is currently on loan to Alavés from Chelsea.

Sergio Agüero will be reunited with familiar faces too. Manu Garcia and Swedish international John Guidetti were both together with the Argentinian at Manchester City.

Did you know?

Since losing 2-1 at home to Alavés in 2016, Barça have gone for twenty games without defeat against Basque teams at Camp Nou.

Sergiño Dest had assisted three of the last six Barça goals in La Liga.

Luis Rioja has only ever scored four goals for Alavés, but two of those were against Barça last season.

Sergi Barjuan has faced Alavés three times as a manager in the past, once when he was in charge of Almeria and twice with Recreativo Huelva, and his record is not so good – one draw and two defeats.  

The coach says

"I want to put some joy back into the team and get them enjoying their football again” he said. “I need all the players to be plugged into turning this situation around. It is important for them to be united.”

Last five meetings

13/02/21 Barça 5-1 Alavés
31/10/20 Alavés 1-1 Barça
19/07/20 Alavés 0-5 Barça
21/12/19 Barça 4-1 Alavés
23/04/19 Alavés 0-2 Barça