Being able to count on the greater contracting of its history, the Barcelona receives Alaves this Sunday, January 28, the Alaves. The match, which will be held at Camp Nou, is part of the schedule of the twenty-first round of the 2017/2018 Spanish Championship and is scheduled to start at 5:45 pm (Brasília time).

Barcelona’s recent performance

It was in the same stadium that, on Thursday, January 25, Barca got the turn in the dispute with Espanyol for a place in the semifinals of the Glass of the King of Spain. After losing in the rival field by 1 to 0, scored 2 to 0 and guaranteed his survival in the fight for the bicampeonato of the tournament.
The game also marked the debut of Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho. The club has invested 140 million euros to get it out of Liverpool. Recovered from muscle injury, he entered the match against Espanyol already in the second half. He has chances of being scaled from the start on Sunday if coach Ernesto Valverde decides to give Andres Iniesta (15 games in the Spanish 2017/2018 season, a goal) or even midfielder Ivan Rakitic (20 games a goal).
As he has played for Liverpool in the European Champions League, Coutinho will not be used in the competition, where Barcelona will play in the last 16 as of February. Thus, the coach must take advantage of his presence and ability to perform various functions in the midfield and strikes to preserve the most tired athletes.
To face Alavés, he should not count on defender Thomas Vermaelen (eight games, no goal), midfielder Jose Manuel Arnaiz Diaz (one game, no goal) and striker Ousmane Dembele (four games without a goal), who follow in treatment of injury.
Barca are firing on LaLiga’s lead. He added 54 points (17 wins and three draws). By the end of the twentieth round, he had 11 points ahead of Atletico Madrid, runner-up.

The current form of Alaves

Finalist of the 2016/2017 edition of the King’s Cup having lost the title to Barcelona, ​​Alavés failed to repeat the feat. After losing 2-1 to Valencia in the first leg, he was able to return the result on Wednesday, January 24. However, it ended up being eliminated in the decision by penalties.
This will limit his goals in the current season to fight for the permanence in the First Division of the Spanish Championship. Something that could be considered little in the beginning of the dispute, but that, after the team passes a good number of rounds in the relegation zone, will be considered satisfactory.
With 19 points (six wins, one draw and 13 losses), he is out of the sticking region. It occupies the sixteenth place in the classification table. But his situation still can not be considered comfortable. The difference for La Coruña, eighteenth and first place in the relegation zone, was only three points at the start of the twenty-first round.
To try to score in Barcelona, ​​Alavés has only two doubts regarding the line-up. They depend on the release of medical department midfielder Manu Garcia (17 games in the Spanish 2017/2018 Championship, two goals) and striker Burgui (13 games, one goal).

History of the matches Barcelona vs Alavés
The teams have crossed three times in the previous season. For the Spanish Championship, Barcelona lost at home by 2 to 1, but was avenged applying a thrashing of 6 to 0 in the rival’s stadium. For the Copa del Rey, the teams made the final of the tournament in its 2016/2017 edition. Barça scored 3-1. In the current season, in the first round, the Catalan team won 2-0.

Alaves has clear signs of performance improvement and will most likely be able to get rid of the threat of demotion. However, it still does not offer security for a hunch of risk against Barcelona, ​​especially in Catalonia. Thus, the bet on the owners of the house follows as a better option. Appears at a price of 1,083 on Bet365. Draw has a prize of 11.00 and successful visitor pays 26.00 per real invested. Quotes were in effect at 8:03 AM on 1/26/2018.