Valladolid vs Barça: Preview

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

With time running out in the title race, Barça are back on the road needing a win to keep the pressure on Real Madrid

Real Valladolid (14th, 39pts) vs FC Barcelona (2nd, 76pts)

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Competition/Round: 2019-20 La Liga, Matchday 36

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Frenkie De Jong, Ansu Fati, Arthur, Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé (out)

Valladolid Outs & Doubts: Míchel (out), Mohammed Salisu (doubt)

Date/Time: Saturday, July 11, 2020, 7.30pm CET (Barcelona), 6.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 1.30pm ET, 10.30am PT (USA), 11pm IST (India)

Venue: Estadio Municipal José Zorrilla, Valladolid, Spain

Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (this is fine dot gif)

How to watch on TV: beIN SPORTS (USA & Canada), LaLigaTV (UK), SuperSport 7 (Nigeria), Movistar LaLiga (Spain), Not Available (India), others

How to stream: fuboTV (USA), beIN SPORTS CONNECT (USA & Canada), Premier Player (UK), Facebook Live (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others

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Following a hard-fought win that relegated city rivals Espanyol to the second division in midweek, Barcelona return to action in La Liga with their penultimate road game of the season away to Real Valladolid.

There are only three rounds left in the league season and the title is looking less and less likely for the two-time defending champions. Barça need to win all their games and hope for Real Madrid to pick up a maximum of four points, which looks really difficult right now as Los Blancos continue to win comfortably and have a soft remaining schedule.

This is the start of the last week of the La Liga season, which will go down as one of the worst league performances in recent Barça history. The away form was pathetic, the team never showed up for the big games, and their biggest rivals are going to win the title despite having a bad season of their own.

Barça’s job in these final three games is to lose the title with dignity and build as much confidence and chemistry as possible for the Champions League in August. They’ll have to face Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals — and the Blaugrana have to eliminate Napoli first — and that’s the worst draw anyone could hope for right now, but three big wins in the league and three really good weeks of training before Napoli could be enough for Barça to look somewhat competitive.

Beating Valladolid is a must, and playing well is an even bigger obligation. Having to watch Madrid win the league will be a little easier to stomach if we show signs of improvement for Europe.

Let’s do this, Barça.

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POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-3-1-2): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Vidal, Rakitic, Puig; Messi; Griezmann, Suárez

Valladolid (4-4-2): Masip; Moyano, Kiko, Sánchez, Carnero; Plano, Alcaraz, Fernández, Villa; Sandro, Guardiola

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PREDICTION

For some reason I’m really optimistic about this game: 4-1 Barça and a good performance.

Source: barcablaugranes.com