Following a difficult win over Rayo Vallecano on Monday to become the new league leaders for the first time in two months, Barcelona return to action with a trip to the beautiful Canary Islands and a meeting with Las Palmas on Saturday Night Fútbol.
Barça come into this one looking for a stronger performance and a much less stressful game compared to the one against Rayo, which was full of nail-biting moments and a generally poor showing by a Barça side that didn’t press, pass or finish well all night long.
But they got all three points, which at the end of that particular night were all that mattered. Now it’s about holding on to the top spot, and playing good football and being efficient up front is the easiest way to get enough points to stay in first place until the last day of the season.
The Catalans will be expected to get all three points this weekend against a Las Palmas side fighting against relegation, but that was the exact scenario Barça found themselves in when these two sides faced each other the first time this season at Montjuïc.
And what happened that day was a disaster that started an awful run of results for the Catalans, who went on to win just one of their next eight games and dropped to third place in the table. Barça dominated Las Palmas in their first meeting but were very poor in front of goal and conceded twice on the counter, once to former Blaugrana striker Sandro Ramírez.
The hosts will certainly look to follow a similar gameplan of being solid at the back and deadly on the break, and Barça will need to be much better at converting their chances to not give Las Palmas any hope of another shocking upset.
Barça worked too hard to get back on top to give it away easily again. It’s time to make a title statement.
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsí, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Gavi, Raphinha; Lewandowski.
Las Palmas (4-3-3): Cillessen; Viti, Suárez, Herzog, Mármol; Muñoz, Essugo, Bajcetic; Sandro, McBurnie, Moleiro.
