FC Barcelona, who are in the middle of yet another astonishing start to the La Liga season, travel to south of the country to newly promoted Almeria this Saturday at 2130 IST.
The two teams could not have started the season more differently. Barcelona lie at the top of the La Liga table with a perfect 18 points from 6 games, in which they have scored an incredible 22 goals.
Barca coach Gerardo Martino would be looking to break a club record by winning the 7th successive opening game in a season, a feat that the Blaugrana have not achieved before.
Barca has won all five of their previous matches in all competitions. Midfielder Cesc Fabregas will look to make a comeback in the squad after sitting out midweek in the match against Real Sociedad.
However, Javier Mascherano is all set to miss out this one with a hamstring injury he picked up in the midweek match.
Almeria, on the other hand, have failed to win even a single match in the opening 6 games of the season and sit at the 17th place in the table with 3 points.
Surprisingly, the home side has scored 10 goals in the course of the first 6 matches, which is more than the number scored by heavyweights like Valencia, Malaga and Real Sociedad. However, the home side has also let in a whopping 15 goals in these opening matches.
Out of their last five matches, Almeria have drawn 3 and lost 2. The home side’s hopes will rest on their ex-Barca striker Rodri to salvage something out of this game.
In the previous 6 meetings between these two sides, Barcelona have won three times and the two sides have drawn the other three times. Almeria boss Francisco Rodriguez will hope that it is one of the latter this time around.