The international break is over and La Liga is back this weekend, with FC Barcelona looking to consolidate their place at the top of the Liga table as they take on Sevilla at the Olympic Stadium in a 9pm CEST kick-off. As always, we have prepared a global guide to times and broadcasters to help you work out how to watch the game wherever you are in the world.
Barça had been on an absolute roll, starting the season with seven straight wins, before suffering 4-2 defeat at health. However the two results since then suggest that Pamplona was just a nasty blip, for the team responded by putting five goals past Young Boys in the Champions League and making the job look easy as they cruised to a 3-0 win at Alavés.
And the best news of all is that a number of players that have been out with injuries are back in the squad and may well get to feature.
García Pimienta back at Barça
Next up it’s Sevilla, who in the last year or so have been but a shadow of their usual selves, and for the first time in two decades are not playing any kind of European football this season. The man charged with getting the club back on track is a familiar face to Barça fans. Before guiding Las Palmas back into the top flight, Garcia Pimienta spent several years coaching at the Ciutat Esportiva, winning the UEFA Youth League and then managing Barça Atlètic.
His first few games didn’t end too well, but he seems to be slowly getting things into shape, and will have taken particular pleasure from winning the derby with Betis in their most recent test. But much as the results have been improving, Sevilla have yet to win any games on the road. And much as we would normally wish the best for a man who served the blaugrana colours so well over the years, hopefully things are going to stay that way for at least another week!
But Sevilla is never an easy test, whatever recent results between these teams might suggest. Indeed, and quite extraordinarily, Barça have only lost once to the Andalusians once since 2007 (the sole defeat was nine years ago), and it is over two decades since they last lost this fixture at home. The Catalans are currently on a run of five straight wins. Time to make it six!
How things stand
Barça went into the weekend top of the league, three points clear of Real Madrid, but the sides are now tied on points after the all-whites won 2-1 at Celta on Saturday. But Barça still have the edge on goal difference, and of course, still have their game with Sevilla to play.
And of course, the next league game for Barça is the biggie. It’s none other than the trip to the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday. And before that there’s a huge Champions League date with Bayern Municha club against which the Catalans have several scores to settle. Those are two massive distractions, but coach Hansi Flick insisted in his pre-game press conference that for the time being there is only one thing on everyone’s mind, and that’s Sevilla.
Team news
Injuries have been horribly unkind to Barça this season, but this week brings some more positive news following the return to action of Frenkie de Jong. Because after almost a year sidelined by a knee injury, Gavi has finally been declared fully fit and included in the squad. But that’s not all the good news, for Fermin Lopez is over his own troubles, and so is Dani Olmo, who got off to such an explosive start at his new club before his excellent progress was cut short by injury.
All three of those players have been included in the squad, although it remains to be seen whether Hansi Flick opts to give any or even all of them any time on pitch.
And the positive news keeps coming! Both Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski returned from duty for Spain and Poland carrying knocks, but it turns out that neither problem as as serious as originally feared, and both are fully available for Sunday as is new goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny who has also been named in the squad
As well as the German stopper, Ferran Torres, Marc Bernal, Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araujo are the other Barça players still out with fitness issues.
As for the visitors, we know that Saúl Ñíguez is not fit and Tanguy Nianzou is suspended after being sent off against Betis.
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