Celta chances
Celta moved three points away from the relegation zone with a 3-0 thrashing of Osasuna that coach Rafael Benitez described as “important”, confirming his planned long-term project is beginning to bear fruit. Los Celestes now have three wins in their last seven La Liga matches, after just one in their first 16 matches of the season, so results are certainly improving. Celta are in 16th place in the standings, though close to dangerous 18th position.
The team has 24 goals scored and 32 missed goals. In fact, her rear is of average reliability, but what drags her down much more is her ineffective attack.
This success interrupted a series of defeats for the team from Vigo in three matches. It is difficult to understand whether Celta are already recovering or this is just an isolated emotional outburst after a series of failures. Read more Celta games predictions at Ratingbet.com online.
Chance for Barcelona
Barcelona has stopped working passively and is delighting fans of goal shows with spectacular matches. And if we consider the purely defensive work of the Catalan team, then everything is not so rosy, and for example, in the last 10 meetings, the club has only 2 clean sheets. Interestingly, these matches took place against Osasuna, and in both the 1st and 2nd cases, Barcelona’s opponent was close to scoring a goal (0.72xG) and (0.95xG).
After the slap in the face that the Catalan players received from Villarreal, the team came to their senses and played two matches in which they scored six points. In the last round away, they pleased their fans with an abundance of goals, beating Alaves 1:3. A little earlier, they looked much more modest at home, defeating Osasuna with a minimal score of 1:0.
If we look at the statistics of Xavi’s players, we can say that little by little, the players manage to score an average of two goals per match. Yes, there are rare exceptions, but even if we take matches where the club was defeated, then we see goals there too. The upcoming opponent is an excellent opponent for a productive match.
In the Spanish Championship, Barça is still high – in third place. Due to several failures by Girona, the gap between second and third place has narrowed to six points. News has already appeared that Xavi’s team intends to get ahead of their opponent in the near future. Let’s see if it works out, so far the club is experiencing problems in defense – in 23 rounds they have conceded more than anyone else in the top 10.
Match prediction
Today we are waiting for the traditional duel scenario for meetings between rivals – both teams are maximally motivated for this duel, and it is high-quality defense that can ultimately bring success. Moreover, in three of the last four head-to-head matches, the opponents scored more than 3 goals, which is what we expect today.