Celta Vigo vs Barcelona, La Liga: Team News, Preview, Lineups, Score Prediction
RC Celta Vigo (17th, 20pts) vs FC Barcelona (3rd, 51pts)*
*Standings at the time of writing
Competition/Round: 2023-24 La Liga, Matchday 25
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Ferran Torres, Sergi Roberto, João Félix, Marcos Alonso (out)
Celta Outs & Doubts: Joseph Aidoo (out), Carlos Dotor (doubt)
Date/Time: Saturday, February 17, 2024, 6.30pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 5.30pm GMT (UK), 12.30pm ET, 9.30am PT (USA), 11pm IST (India)
Venue: Estadio de Balaídos, Vigo, Spain
Referee: Juan Luis Pulido Santana
VAR: Valentín Pizarro Gómez
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Viaplay Sports 2 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Sports18 (India), Not Available (Spain, Canada), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), DAZN (Spain), others
Following a very disappointing draw at home to Granada and a full week of rest and training in beautiful Catalonia, Barcelona are back on the road for another La Liga match against a relegation candidate as the Blaugrana face Celta Vigo at Balaídos on Saturday evening.
Barça come into this one after dropping two points to the second-worst team in the league at home and effectively ending their title pursuit. The champions are now 10 points behind the leaders with 14 matches remaining, and have a brutal schedule that includes games against Real Madrid, Girona, Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao all away from home.
Simply put, there will be no title defense for Xavi Hernández and his men in 2023-24. It’s done, and the mathematical guarantee is just a matter of time. Second place is still a possibility, but one or two bad results in a row would make the Top 4 race very interesting and put a lot of pressure on Barça to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Speaking of the European Cup, the much-anticipated Round of 16 first leg against Napoli is just days away, which makes this weekend’s clash even more important. Barça cannot afford to travel to Naples on the back of yet another disappointing performance and result against a relegation candidate in the league, and they badly need a confidence boost going into next Wednesday.
Unfortunately Celta aren’t your typical relegation candidate. They are fighting at the bottom for the second year in a row, which is unusual for a team used to the top half of the table, but their underlying numbers suggest the Celestes will get out of trouble sooner rather than later. Rafa Benítez has his team well organized at the back and lethal on the counter, and Celta would be sitting comfortably in mid-table by now had their front players been more efficient in front of goal.
The biggest problem, however, is their defense, which has conceded a lot of goals recently. But the structure of the backline is sound, and a lot of their goals allowed have come from individual mistakes. Their defensive issues are very similar to Barça’s, who have fallen apart at the back and cannot stop conceding one dumb goal after another.
These two bad defenses and dangerous attacks now meet in what should be a very entertaining encounter, which is always the case at Balaídos. Barça don’t win there very often, but they must find a way to finally conquer Celta away to get three crucial points for their Top 4 aspirations and a much-needed injection of joy and positivity before the biggest game of the season.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Ter Stegen; Kounde, Araujo, Iñigo, Cancelo; Christensen, De Jong; Raphinha, Gündogan, Pedri; Lewandowski
Celta (5-3-2): Guaita; Vázquez, Tapia, Núñez, Domínguez, Ristic; Mingueza, Jailson, De La Torre; Aspas, Larsen
PREDICTION
Celta away is a guarantee for a wild, tense game that’s decided at the very end and usually ends all square. And I don’t think things will be any different this time around: 2-2 draw.
