by
Barcelona are looking to make it eight wins on the bounce when they travel to face an entertaining Girona side on Saturday.
Xavi’s team are sitting pretty atop the La Liga standings, with a three-point lead over Real Madrid, and have not tasted defeat since October. As for Girona, they’re down in 11th but Michel’s side have attracted real praise for their style of play.
Here’s all you need to know about this one.
Planet League’s Rich Holmes & Sustainable Clarets’ Cat Jebson join Shebahn Aherne to have football’s climate conversation ahead of Green Football Weekend. If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast! If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
United Kingdom
United States
Canada
Girona team news
Santiago Bueno’s red card against Villarreal will see him suspended for this one, while the injured trio of Ibrahima Kebe, David Lopez and Reinier are all on the sidelines as well.
(4-2-3-1): Gazzaniga; Martinez, Hernandez, Espinosa, Gutierrez; Romeu, Garcia; Riquelme, Martin, Villa; Castellanos.
Barcelona team news
Midfielder Pedri is expected to be fit despite being forced off against Real Sociedad through injury, meaning Xavi will likely have no fitness concerns for this one.
The boss will, however, have to cope with the suspensions of both Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, so expect an unorthodox lineup in attack.
(4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Christensen, Balde; Pedri, Busquets, De Jong; Dembele, Fati, Gavi.
Girona are fun and will be feeling good about themselves after their impressive, albeit unsuccessful, showing against Villarreal. Michel will fancy his chances of seeing Girona score.
That being said, Barcelona are a different animal right now and don’t concede a lot of goals. They should be able to stifle Girona, after which it should come down to whether they can cope up top without Lewandowski or Torres.
La Blaugrana do have the firepower needed to cope, and a narrow victory may be on the cards.
Prediction: Girona 1-2 Barcelona
