Barça seeks to rediscover itself. The team led by Xavi faces Valencia at the Camp Nou with the aim of recovering the good feelings that the team had a couple of weeks ago and, at least, maintaining the distance of 7 points that it maintains in the lead with respect to Real Madrid . He will have to do it once again with the losses of Lewandowski, Pedri and Dembélé, three capital absences to which Gavi’s joins due to suspension. It will be a match to turn the page on the Cup duel and focus on a League that is facing its final stretch and for which it is in an unbeatable position.
«We have to change the chip of the Cup. Barça is the most difficult club in the world, you beat Real Madrid and you are not convincing and if it is the other way around it is a national holiday. I already said it last year and they gave me hosts like a piano, “said Xavi at the press conference prior to his team’s game against Valencia. The Catalan coach wants to turn the page in a week in which more has been said about style than about the blow on the table that his team have given in the Cup against their eternal rival.
And it is that against the whites, Barça emerged unscathed from a moment of uncertainty. The culés signed a ‘horribilis’ week before the classic cup bearer, falling first at Old Trafford and later in Almería. There were two punctures that set off all the alarms in a group that only four days later removed all its foundations and signed a match never seen before at the Santiago Bernabéu. The culés renounced their DNA in the face of the loss of essential players and they came to fruition in a game in which they only had 35% possession, shot twice and played a match based on a Numantine defense. Barça reinvented itself and now, with the same absentees, it will have to decide which team it wants to be, the one of yesteryear or the one that has helped it to get the chestnuts out of the fire at a critical moment of the season.
To do this, Xavi will have to overcome again the absence of some of the players who give meaning to the culé style. They will not be back due to injury Robert Lewandowski, Pedri and Ousmane Dembélé, three key player casualties to which is added that of Gavi, who is serving a suspension after seeing the fifth yellow card against Almería. All these casualties will condition an eleven in which the Tarrasa coach settles again between the 4-4-2 or the 4-3-3, a drawing that gains strength in the face of the plague of casualties. In the first case, Sergi Roberto and Franck Kessié could be the companions of the fixed Busquets and Frenkie de Jong, while in the second the possibility would open up for a trident made up of Ferran Torres, Raphinha and Ansu Fati, who would have a new opportunity to earn a place in the rotation.
A Valencia with urgency
In front will be a team that last week recovered its pulse, but that continues with assisted breathing. Valencia is third from last, in relegation places, and is experiencing a real nightmare throughout the season. From Gattuso he went to Voro and now to Rubén Baraja, a man of the house with whom to recover the DNA and get the entity out of the quagmire at a critical moment. Until now, he has signed a defeat in Getafe and a long-suffering victory at Mestalla against Real Sociedad. It was a game that served to start believing in turning the situation around. And that is precisely what the che want to do at the Camp Nou, hit the table in one of the most complicated scenarios in the competition, achieve a turning point and begin a league comeback that will banish the ghost of relegation, the one who has been wandering around the capital of Turia since August.
To do this, Baraja will have to make bobbin lace with a team in which problems do not stop accumulating. Due to injury, Pipo will not be able to count on Jaume Doménech, Gabriel Paulista, Gayà, Marcos André, Nico and it is likely that he will not be able to count on Edinson Cavani either, suffering from muscular problems. Faced with these absences, Valencia could bet on putting away their clothes and looking for a counterattack thanks to the speed of players like Samuel Lino, Hugo Duro, Castillejo or Kluivert, a plan that already sounds like their own to Xavi and with which Valencia intends to sound the fireworks at the Camp Nou.
-Probable alignments:
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Koundé, Araujo, Marcos Alonso, Jordi Alba, Busquets, De Jong, Kessié, Sergi Roberto, Raphinha and Ferran Torres.
Valencia: Mamardahvili, Correia, Cömert, Diakhaby, Lato, Andre Almeida, Guillaume, Musah, Lino, Hugo Duro and Kluivert.
Referee: Javier Alberola Rojas (Castilian-La Mancha Committee).
Stadium: Camp Nou. 4:15 p.m.
Television: Movistar LaLiga.