Soon after losing an invincibility of five months, the Barcelona returns to the field this Sunday, 21 of January. Your rival will be Betis. The match, to be held at the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stadium in Seville, is part of the twentieth round schedule of the Spanish 2017/2018 Championship, the first of the second round. The start is scheduled for 5:45 pm (Brasília time).
The recent performance of Betis
Alviverde has won his last two games. The most significant of them was just the classic against Sevilla. He scored 5 to 3. At home, he beat Leganés 3-2. He came in at 27 points (eight wins, three draws and eight losses) ‘sticking’ in the European tournament qualifying zone. By the end of the nineteenth round, he was in seventh place with only two points of disadvantage compared to Sevilla, sixth.
It was a relief after a little over a month ago when he played seven games and suffered five defeats. The best news for coach Quique Setien has probably been the improvement of the offensive advantage, which was the team’s mark at the start of the season. There have been 10 goals scored in the last four games.
Considering the entire first round, Betis shook the rivals’ net in 33 chances. It is LaLiga’s third best attack. Only Barcelona (52 goals) and Valencia (40 goals) got higher numbers in the period.
The victory against Leganés also removed another ‘ghost’. Betis has not been a constituent for four rounds. There were two defeats and two draws at Manuel Ruiz de Lopera. In front of Barcelona, Setien can lose three athletes by injury. Antonio Barragan (17 matches in the 2017/2018 Spanish League, without a goal) and strikers Joel Campbell (three games, one goal) and Antonio Sanabria (12 matches, seven goals) are in injury treatment.
The current form of Barcelona
Barcelona’s unbeaten 29-match series was discontinued on Wednesday, January 17, five months after it was started. After 23 wins and six draws, the team took Espanyol 1-0 in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the King’s Cup.
Although he played with a mixed team, Barcelona saw their main star, Argentine striker Lionel Messi (19 Spanish league games 2017/2018, 17 goals) lose a penalty and conceded the goal in the 43 minutes of the final stage.
Still has chances to reverse the situation once the match back will be held in his stadium. What has made his fans a little more worried are the bruises. There are in the medical department defenders Javier Mascherano (seven games, no goal) and Samuel Umtiti (12 games, no goal); Philippe Coutinho (still unable to make his debut after joining Liverpool), Gerard Deulofeu (nine games, one goal), Andrés Iniesta (15 games, one goal) and Paulinho (18 matches, eight goals); and attackers Ousmane Dembelé (four games, no goal) and Paco Alcacer (eight games, two goals).
This should cause coach Ernesto Valverde to wait for the position of the medical department before defining the lineup pending the release of some athletes from that group. Barcelona are unbeaten in the Spanish Championship. The team reached 51 of 57 points in the first round (16 wins and three losses).
History of the matches Betis vs Barcelona
Barcelona has not lost to Betis for 11 games. The series, begun in 2012, has nine wins and two draws. In the first round of the Spanish League, Barça made it 2-0.
Betis does not give up his offensive style. He prefers to risk and suffer goals to remain closed waiting opportunities for counterattack. Even before the powerful Barcelona, the expectation is that it maintains that position. Although with many embezzlements, the team of Catalonia also prefers to take the initiative of the game. By having better technical ability, it should be considered the best option to guess even away from your domains. The price for this possibility is 1.28 in Bet365. Draw shows return of 6.00. Victory alviverde yields 10.00 per invested real. Quotations in effect at 02:01 PM on 1/18/2018.