A beaten-down Barcelona will host 16th-placed Levante in their sixth La Liga match on Sunday, 26th September.
Venue: Camp Nou
Key Statistics
Barcelona are winless in their last three competitive games, with two draws against Cadiz and Granada and a home defeat against Bayern Munich.
Levante are yet to win a match in La Liga this season, having drawn four and lost two of their six league matches.
Head to Head (H2H)
In 28 encounters, Barcelona have triumphed a massive 21 times over their immediate rivals, with Levante pulling one over the Blaugrana only three times. Interestingly, Barcelona have won all of their 16 games against Levante since 2004, held at Camp Nou.
Latest performances
Barcelona: D-D-L-W-D
Levante: L-D-D-L-D
Barcelona
The Blaugrana are a shadow of themselves currently, having only mustered a paltry nine points in five La Liga games so far. Ronald Koeman has had a nightmarish second season with Barcelona, with his recent escapades taking his win percentage at the club to 61%. To put things in perspective, Quique Setien, who is considered to be one of the worst appointments in the club’s history, had a better win percentage at the time of his sacking, with 64%.
The 26-time La Liga champions are sitting in seventh place, seven points behind the high-flying Real Madrid. With a trip to Wanda Metropolitano being Barcelona’s only fixture before the international break kicks in, the upcoming clash against Levante would be pivotal to how the rest of their season shapes up.
Predicted line-ups
Ter Stegen, Mingueza, Araujo, Pique, Dest, Gavi, Busquets, Roberto, Coutinho, Luuk de Jong, Depay
Levante
While Barcelona are enduring one of the worst starts to a La Liga season in recent history, their Sunday rivals Levante haven’t faired better either. Due to their winless streak in the 2021-22 season, they currently occupy 16th place, just a solitary point above the relegation zone. Levante did manage to take points off league-leaders Real Madrid in an unlikely 3-3 draw earlier this season.
Nevertheless, their recent showings in La Liga signals a similar finish towards the end of this season. Having secured 15th, 15th, 12th and 14th positions in their last four league campaigns, the Frogs are on course for another disappointing outing in the league.
Predicted line-ups
Fernandez, Miramon, Duarte, Mustafi, Clerc, De Frutos, Martinez, Radoja, Melero, Marti, Morales
Prediction
Even though Levante have the tools to dismantle a dysfunctional Barcelona side, the superior quality of the Catalans’ starting XI can give them the edge. If all goes according to plan, Levante have another upcoming winless match in their schedule.
Barcelona 2-1 Levante
