Spanish La Liga: Barcelona vs. Sporting Gijon – Match Preview
Barcelona are going to host the Spanish team Sporting Gijon as they are going to arrive at the Nou Camp today during a midweek La Liga fixture. This week Barcelona were scheduled to play three La Liga games and this is the second
game that Barcelona are going to play this week. First was against Atletico Madrid as Barcelona were away to Madrid to play the “aggressive” Atletico Madrid side.
Since Pep Guardiola has taken over Barcelona, the Catalan giants have not won at Atletico Madrid’s home even once but this week the Blaugrana wearing men changed everything as they emerged victorious with the help of Lionel Messi
and the versatile defender Gerard Pique who was later awarded as the man of the match for his fabulous performance.
In the game against Atletico Madrid, the most “prized” possession of Barcelona, Lionel Messi was badly injured and he is now going to miss the match against Sporting Gijon; however, the morale of the team is very high. With Lionel
Messi missing from the squad, Pep Guardiola stated that Messi was “virtually irreplaceable,” however the Spanish side have a lot of options to play on the right wing. With players like Pedro Rodriguez, Andres Iniesta and David Villa in the squad there is definitely
not going to be any problem for the Spanish La Liga Champions as they are going to fight for the three points that they lost last week against Hercules.
The new signing David Villa is a big fan of Sporting Gijon and it is going to be a big game for the Spanish striker as he is going to face his favourite childhood team. David Villa has only managed to appear, and score, 4 times
against Sporting Gijon. The first goal against Sporting Gijon came from a penalty that he took when he was in Valencia. Three of the four goals that he has scored against Sporting Gijon came off a penalty kick and it is also a noted fact that the Spaniard
never celebrates after scoring against his favourite team.
While being a part of Barcelona, David Villa has managed to find the net twice even though he has only appeared four times. David Villa is a sensational striker and he has to find the net tonight in order to gain back the momentum
that his team lost during the last home game that they played against Hercules, when they suffered a shocking 0-2 loss against a team that was recently promoted.
Barcelona are not only going to miss out on the “main man” Lionel Messi, as the French left back Abidal is not going to be playing as well. The French defender has been out of training because of issues that have been going on
around his family. The dynamic left back is going to miss the home game clash against Sporting Gijon and the former Inter Milan man Maxwell is going to take his place at the back; however, the newly signed Seville player Adriano can also be a very good replacement
for the French left back.
Since Sporting Gijon had been promoted, two years ago, they have not won a single game at the Nou Camp; with Barcelona under Josep “Pep” Guardiola. They won the first match 3-0 last season as Keita, with Bojan and Ibrahimovic on
the scoring list. In the other match, Barcelona won the match 3-1 as Samuel Eto’o struck two goals and the last one was scored by the Brazilian right back Dani Alves.
Barcelona have a fair chance to win the game today if they keep on passing the ball around like they usually do. With Lionel Messi out, Josep Pep Guardiola has only played 18 games without him. Out of the 18 games, Barcelona have
only lost 4 games out of which 3 games were played when nothing was at stake.
The question is whether David Villa is going to shine today; that is the question that is going to be answered once the match ends.
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