In a round without Real Madrid, who had their game against Leganés, away from home, postponed due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup (International Football Federation), fell to Barcelona to Sunday prime time , December 17, the schedule of the sixteenth day of the Spanish 2017/2018 Championship. From 17:45 (Brasília time) will face the La Coruña in Camp Nou.

Barcelona’s recent performance

After two consecutive draws, Barcelona returned to win in the fifteenth round. As a visitor, he scored 2-0 at Villarreal. Maintained the lead of the tournament. With 39 points (12 wins and three draws), he has eight points ahead of Real, although he is not the deputy leader and is considered to be the biggest rival of the Catalan team in the title fight of the current LaLiga season.
Important number considering that the next edition of ‘El Clássico’ will be played on December 23. It was just a game against Real Madrid that caused the latest defeat of Barcelona. This happened on August 16 in the dispute of the Supercopa of Spain. Since then, the team has scored a series of 23 games without ever losing. There were 18 wins and five draws.
In this list are the games that have secured the classification of both the last 16 of the King’s Cup, when will face Celta, and the European Champions League, which will have Chelsea as a rival.
Barca have the best attack (38 goals) and LaLiga’s least-squared defense (seven goals). He managed to reach those numbers even though he had significant problems of injury throughout the dispute. They can even get Palmeiras quarterback Mina, who has been hired for the upcoming season, to have his debut in January.
After all, Argentine veteran Javier Mascherano (six Spanish 2017/2018 games without a goal) and French Samuel Umititi (12 games, no goal), who are the team’s holders, are handed over to the medical department. The latter should stay away from the lawns for approximately two months due to muscle damage. In the South American case, the biggest problem is not even the muscular problem that got him out of the last seven games. He would have received a proposal from the Chinese team and may leave the club early next year.
It should not be the only two casualties for Saturday’s game. Midfielder Andrés Iniesta (12 games, one goal) and striker Ousmane Dembelé (two games, no goal) are also in the care of the medical department. The latter returned to training this week but still needs to improve physical fitness in order to perform.

Current form of La Coruña

After four rounds without a win, La Coruna broke their fast on Saturday, December 9. At home, beat Leganés 1 to 0. It was enough to keep out of the relegation zone. With 15 points (four wins, three draws and eight losses), he finished 15th in the seventeenth position.
It is not a comfortable situation, since in the last five rounds two of the three rivals that are in the relegation zone managed to add more points than La Coruña and they got closer in the fight by position in the classification.
The injuries have also been a problem for coach Cristóbal Parralo, who in addition to the many problems still has a much leaner and lower quality cast than Barcelona. Defenders Alejandro Arribas (three matches in the 2017/2018 Spanish Championship without a goal) and Gerard Valentin (two matches, no goal) are in the process of injury recovery; and Javier Bicho (without performances), Federico Cartabia (14 games, three goals) and Luisinho (12 games, one goal).

History of the bouts between Barcelona and La Coruña
La Coruna managed to stop last season a sequence of 13 matches without hitting Barcelona. In the second round of the Spanish Championship, at home, he scored 2-1.

Although Barcelona’s last appearances were not delightful, they were enough to keep the team well on the lead. That does not open great possibility for risk guesses in the duel of this Sunday. With a price of 1.07 in Rivalo, Barca is the best guessing option. Draw has a prize of 13.00. La Coruña is considered the biggest underdog in the round, with a return of 20.00 per real invested in case of victory.