Barcelona and Celta face each other tonight at the Camp Nou (9:30 p.m., Movistar LaLiga) with their minimum goals met, which does not hide the feeling that both teams have starred in a dismal course. They are two bad students who try to fix the course in the final exams. So, in the three days they have left, they have the consolation of raising their grades. For Barça, securing second place would be the lesser evil, while for the Galicians the bar would be to improve that eleventh place in the table aspiring to ninth place (with the economic prize that this entails) and move away from fifteenth (follow the match live on As.com).
to Barca of Xavi He is missing five points of the nine that remain to play to be automatically confirmed as second in LaLiga. You can win them directly or by taking advantage of those that your pursuers stop winning. For Celta, the most complicated match of this final stretch of the championship is today in Barcelona. In addition, the victory would give them a diploma that would give luster to a rather convulsive end of the year due to sports and non-sports issues.
Xavi opens his rival, because in the match of the first round in Balaídos the Blaugrana team was directed by Sergi Barjuan in the period in which the technician of the subsidiary worked as an interim between Koeman and the current coach. It was a convulsive game, in which Barça went ahead in the first half by 0-3 (Ansu, Busquets and Memphis) but it ended in a draw after the Barcelona team melted after the relapse of Ansu Fati and Celta took advantage of it to draw with a goal from Nolito and two from Iago Aspas, the last one in the 96th minute.
Sergio Busquetsirreplaceable player for Xavi, will not be able to play due to accumulation of cautions, so the Catalan coach will have to reformulate his midfield. most likely Frenkie de Jong goes on to play midfielder and the interiors are occupied by Gavi and Riqui Puig, who would have a penultimate opportunity after another year with hardly any play. Just in case, Xavi has added Jandro Orellana and Álvaro Sanz to the squad list. Contrasted academic neatness.
In Celta, which comes from having a feast at the expense of Alaves, Nolito will be out due to injury and is not expected to wear the light blue shirt again, while the debate surrounding Denis Suárez continues. The former Barça midfielder is still at odds with the president in negotiating his renewal, but he has the fans on his side. Against Alavés he shone through a great match. At the Camp Nou he will have a new opportunity to gain followers. Anything to raise grade.