FC Barcelona travel to CD Leganés in La Liga Matchday 4
Barcelona travel to La Liga newcomers Leganés fresh from their demolition of Celtic.
Form
The Catalans come into this fixture with mixed form so far after winning their first two league matches before their shock loss to Alavés. They then followed this up with a 7-0 trouncing of Celtic in the Champions League. Confidence will be high among the players after the brilliant display in the match against the Scottish champions.
Leganés have had a great start to the season with a 0-0 draw against local rivals Atlético Madrid, and a total of four points out of the three games. The result against Atlético suggests they must be respected especially seen as Barcelona are playing them away from home. They also won away against Celta Vigo which is impressive because they finished in the top six last season. Therefore the recent form suggests Barcelona are in for a tough game in an unusually early kick-off (1pm CET). Barcelona had the perfect lesson last week against Alavés, so they should have learnt from their mistakes.
Want your voice heard? Join the Everything Barca team!
Squads
More from Everything Barca
The squad have been announced with Barcelona resting three key players. Sergio Busquets is the main player being rested with Aleix Vidal and Lucas Digne being the other two. This suggest Luis Enrique is continuing with his risky squad rotation. The lack of Busquets in the team last season usually meant defeat for Barcelona, so it will be interesting to see how Barcelona play without him. However, André Gomes did take over from Busquets in the defensive midfield role against Celtic. Therefore Enrique may have seen enough then to suggest that Gomes can do that role against Leganés. Although Javier Mascherano is another option for that specific role. The opposition have a couple of minor injuries to key players that they have to deal with. Both players (Martín Mantovani and Jon Serantes) could possibly still play though.
History
This match is making history for both teams even before the match kicks off. There isn’t any history between the two teams due to this being Leganés first season in the top division. Somehow both teams have avoided each other in the Copa del Rey as well, so this is the first time Leganés have hosted Barcelona. Hopefully Barça can start with a positive record against this time, but it’s hard not to fall in love with the underdog story of this little club.
BARCELONA, SPAIN – SEPTEMBER 13: Andre Gomes of Barcelona vies with Celtic’s Scott Brown during the UEFA Champions League football match between FC Barcelona and Glasgow Celtic at Camp Nou Stadium on September 13, 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Albert Llop/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Playing Style
The team from Madrid have played on the counter-attack, and defended deep in their games so far. This suits Barcelona because they are unlikely to press the ball high up the pitch, and are unlikely to much pressure on the ball until it reaches the final third which therefore gives Lionel Messi and the others plenty of time to unlock the defence. It also means the person in Busquets’ usual position, whether it be Mascherano or Gomes, won’t have much pressure to deal with when starting the build-up play. This is important because pressure on this position when Busquets wasn’t playing last season often caused Barcelona major problems. This is assuming that the Leganés manager (Asier Garitano) doesn’t decide to do any specific tactical innovations.
The control that the Barcelona DM has on the match, and the influence of M-S-N are going to be key if Barça are going to get a result.
Prediction: Leganés 1-3 Barcelona
More from Everything Barca