Barcelona returns to action again this Tuesday at the Nou Camp after their weekend win over Mallorca as they host struggling side Leganes.
Lionel Messi and co returned to La Liga action last time out with an impressive win over Mallorca—a match where Martin Braithwaite scored his first goal for the club. The Catalan club who remain atop of La Liga table will look to continue picking up all three points here and hold onto the top spot as the season draws to its conclusion with ten games to go.
Leganes meanwhile are heading into the tie on the back of a 2:1 home loss to Villarreal. They remain in 19th place with 23 points on the board. Survival remains their target for the season, and any positive result here will be welcome for Javier Aguirre’s side.
Team News
Quique Setien welcomed back Messi and Luiz striker to the side after their recent battle with injuries, so he is expected to field perhaps the same starting eleven that did the job against Mallorca last time out. However, French attacker Ousmane Dembele remains a long-term injury doubt and is not expected back till August.
Alexander Szymanowski is back in training for Javier Aguirre, but will not be rushed back to the starting lineup.
Head to head
Barcelona enjoys a superior head to head record in this tie, with four wins in the last five. The visitors have conceded 14 times in those five games with their only win in that period coming in 2018.
Team Form
Barca last five games in all competition: WWLDW
Leganes last five games in all competition: LWDLD
Betting preview
Barca enters this tie on the back on an impressive four-nil win over Mallorca last time out. Their last win brought their season tally three wins in the last five games in all competition (W3, D1, L1). In that period, the Catalan club scored eleven times conceding three times and keeping three clean sheets in those three wins.
Lionel Messi and co. remain the league’s top-scoring side, and the return of Luiz Suarez could mean even more goals with the Uruguay talisman on eleven goals and eight assists in 18 league games this season.
At home, Barca remains the best in the business with an average of 3.21 goals scored per game at the Nou Camp.
They also hold an impressive record at the other end of the pitch with an average 0.86 goals conceded in 14 home games this season.
The hosts are masters of both halves with an even number of goals scored in both halves. They, however, have conceded more in the second period (18) than they have in the first half (13).
Leganes are pretty much at the lower part of the table in almost all positive stats this season. However, they don’t tend to concede much per game as their last five games have seen them concede an average of one goal.
However, the last time they conceded more than three goals in a game was against Barcelona in January. Since then, no game featuring them has recorded more than 3.5 goals.
Despite conceding few goals per game, they remain the side with one of the lowest numbers of clean sheets—four.
At the other end of the pitch, they have score only 21 times—the worst in the league—with only eight coming away from home. They have failed to score in 12 of the 28 games they have played this season.
Suggested Bets
Barcelona to win @ 1/6
Over 3.5 Goals @ 5/4
Barcelona to win both half @ 8/13
