Granada vs Barça: Preview
Can Barça play well and win away from home? That’s their challenge this Saturday
Granada CF (7th, 7pts) vs FC Barcelona (5th, 7pts)*
*Points and positions at the time of writing on Friday
Competition/Round: 2019-20 La Liga, Matchday 5
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Jordi Alba, Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé, Carles Aleñá, Moussa Wagué (out)
Granada Outs & Doubts: Álex Martínez, Neyder Lozano, Fede Vico, Quini (out), Yan Eteki (doubt)
Date/Time: Saturday, September 21, 2019, 9pm CET (Barcelona), 8pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3pm ET, 12pm PT (USA), 12.30am IST (India, Sunday)
Venue: Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain
Referee: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández
How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), Premier Sports 2 (UK), Canal+ Sport 2 (Nigeria), Not Available (India), Movistar LaLiga (Spain), others
How to stream: FuboTV (USA), beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), Premier Player (UK), Facebook Live (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a very tense 0-0 draw with Borussia Dortmund to start the new Champions League season, Barcelona are back in action in La Liga with a road trip to the beautiful Andalusia region for a meeting with Granada. Both teams are on 7 points to start the season, but they’ve done it in completely different ways.
While Barça earned six of those seven points at home with two amazing performances but looked horrible away from home, Granada have been awesome on the road, unbeaten in three away games with 9 goals scored and just three conceded. They had dominant wins over Espanyol and Celta Vigo, and they’re only home match so far was a fierce battle with leaders Sevilla, who came away with a 1-0 win that they’ll relish all season.
Granada are not pushovers, and to get the win on Saturday Barça will need to do something they haven’t done yet this season: play well away from home. Ter Stegen’s miracle night in Dortmund was just the latest proof that something is seriously wrong, and Barça must prove that they can go anywhere and win. Sevilla went to Granada and won, and they at least think they can win the title. Barça know they can, so they have to go to Granada and win as well.
Do the job, Barça. And do it well. We want a real masterclass this time.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Firpo; Rakitic, De Jong, Arthur; Messi, Suárez, Pérez
Granada (4-2-3-1): Rui Silva; Díaz, Duarte, Sánchez, Neva; Herrera, Montoro; Puertas, Fernández, Machís; Soldado
PREDICTION
As much as the result matters in what promises to be a very tight title race, I actually want to see a great performance first. Even if we don’t win for some strange reason but actually deserve to win and show some real positive signs, I’m fine with it. That said: 4-1 Barça.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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