Barcelona travel to a picturesque city in search of a picturesque win, or any type of win.
The Barcelona ship is anything but steady at the moment. Subpar performances coupled with a few unsavoury results last month has left a sour taste in the mouths of many, no one more so than Xavi himself, who will be parting ways with the team come June. The mid-week win against Osasuna will calm a few nerves, but that won't be enough. They'll have to achieve the same result in Vitoria for anyone to take their claims of seeing Xavi off the best way possible seriously.
Alaves themselves have been doing well this season, and are recently in strong form, having won 4 of their last 5 league games. They've also kept 2 clean sheets in that period. They're currently not far off the top 10 and will look to build on that as they receive the defending champions on their home turf.
INTERESTING STATS
- The two teams have locked horns 46 times across all competitions thus far. As expected, the visitors have dominated proceedings over their western rivals with 32 wins to their name. The hosts have seven wins in this fixture and seven games have ended in draws.
- The visitors are unbeaten in their last 13 meetings against the hosts, recording 11 wins.
- The two teams last met in the reverse fixture in November, with Barcelona recording a 2-1 home win.
- Two of Deportivo Alaves' last three wins against the Catalan giants have come in away games.
- The visitors have scored twice the number of goals (44) as the hosts (22) in the league this term. Alaves have the better defensive record, conceding two goals fewer (27).
- Alaves have failed to score in nine of their last 10 home meetings against the visitors, suffering seven losses.
- The visitors are unbeaten in their travels in La Liga this season.
Last 5 meetings (all la Liga)
12/11/22 Barça 2-1 Alavés
23/01/22 Alavés 0-1 Barça
30/10/21 Barça 1-1 Alavés
13/02/21 Barça 5-1 Alaves
31/10/20 Alaves 1-1 Barça
TEAM NEWS
Alaves
Luis Garcia will be without Andoni Gorosabel who is serving a suspension after accumulating 4 yellow cards. Aleksandar Sedlar remains unavailable through a long term knee injury. No other fresh concerns for the home side.
Antonio Sivera will be in goal. Nahuel Tenaglia and Javi Lopez will be the two full-backs for this fixture and will support the centrebacks Ruben Duarte and Rafa Marin.
Antonio Blanco, Ander Guevara and Jon Guridi will be the midfielders, while Luis Rioja and Carlos Vicente will feature out wide on the flanks alongside Samu Omorodion.
Barcelona
Xavi, unlike Luis Garcia, continues to have fresh injury concerns. This time, it's Ferran Torres, who suffered a hamstring injury a few minutes into the game against Osasuna. Iñigo Martinez has been declared fit for this game.
Iñaki Pena continues in goal. Pau Cubarsà started ahead of Christensen against Osasuna and may very well do the same here. Jules Koundé, Ronald Araujo and João Cancelo are expected to retain their spots. Same goes for Pedri, Gündoghan and Frenkie Dejong. Hector Fort, Fermin Lopez, B team member Unai Hernandez, Oriol Romeu and Marc Casado will be on the bench.
Vitor Roque finally opened his account with Barcelona, scoring the winning goal against Osasuna and may get his first start against Alaves. Lamine Yamal has seen an incredible amount of minutes recently and probably deserves a rest soon, although this may not be the game to leave him out. B team strikers Pau Victor and Marc Guiu will be on the bench.
What time does Alaves vs Barcelona kick-off?
Location: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Stadium: Estadio de Mendizorroza
Date: Saturday 3 February
Kick-off Time: 17:30 GMT / 12:30 ET / 09:30 PT
Referee: Juan Martinez Munuera
VAR: Santiago Jaime Latre
Alaves will be brave as they'll believe they can get something out of this. Barcelona are prone to make things difficult for themselves time and again, so they'll need to be void of errors if they're to stay on the winning track.