It has been 42 days since FC Barcelona last played at Spotify Camp Nou. What with the winter break, the Spanish Super Cup, and no fewer than six games in three other competitions all being away from home, the team are at last back at their home stadium for a Sunday 9pm CET kick-off against Real Oviedo.

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Barça go into the game after suffering their first defeat of 2026, a 2-1 reverse at Real Sociedad that brought an end to a run of 11 consecutive wins in all competitions. They bounced back from that with a 4-2 win at Slavia Prague in the Champions League, but not without a number of difficulties along the way.

And they have hopefully only temporarily lost top spot in La Liga. Following their 2-0 victory at Villarreal on Saturday, Real Madrid spent the night as leaders, but a win for Barça on Sunday would reinstate the Catalans in first place. 

Head to head

The game marks the welcome return of the historic Asturian outfit to Spotify Camp Nou. A club that was a regular feature of the top flight fell into hard times around the turn of the century, and was ultimately demoted to the fourth tier of the pyramid. It's been a slow recovery since then, but they finally made it back into La Liga and Barça returned to the Carlos Tartiere for the first time in 25 years earlier this season.

Oviedo scored first in that match, but in one of many comebacks in recent times, Barça eventually ran out 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Eric García, Robert Lewandowski and Ronald Araujo. That made it seven wins out of nine in recent meetings between the sides, although the last time Oviedo came to Camp Nou in May 2001, they were shock 1-0 winners.

Despite that famous victory, Oviedo would fail to avoid the drop, while for Barça it spelt deep trouble. Already with no chance of winning the league, they were now in danger of missing out on one of the Champions League berths, but eventually clinched fourth place thanks to Rivaldo's now legendary overhead kick against Valencia.

Oviedo form guide

Oviedo's first experience of Liga football in a quarter of a century has been a tough ride so far. They are bottom of the table with just 13 points, having lost again last weekend, this time to Osasuna. They picked up an admirable win away to Valencia in September, but they haven't won a game since then and have particularly struggled on the road.

With just eleven goals, they are by far the lowest scoring side in the league.

In an attempt to change the dynamic, they are into their third coach of the campaign. Following Veljko Paunović (now manager of Serbia), they turned to Luis Carrión, but he only lasted two months for being dismissed too. Uruguayan Guillermo Almada (formerly of Valladolid) is the latest coach charged with doing something about Oviedo's ailing fortunes, but thus far, there hasn't been much of an improvement in results.

Matters weren't helped by the loss of players like Salomón Rondón in the winter transfer market, but the club has also brought in new talent. Almada has introduced his countrymen Thiago Borbas and Nicolás Fonseca, as well as Argentina's Thiago Fernández on loan from Villarreal to cover certain positions.

For this game, Oviedo are without the injured Ivorian defender Eric Bailly and English midfielder Ovie Ejaria.

Team news

Barça were already missing the injured Gavi and Andreas Christensen, but there are new things to worry about after Ferran Torres picked up a muscle injury against Real Sociedad and Pedri pulled his hamstring in Prague. And goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen has departed the club on loan to Girona until the end of the season.

On the positive side, Lamine Yamal returns to action after missing the game with Slavia through suspension.

 

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