Barcelona has a new litmus test this Sunday. The Barça team receives the surprising Girona at the Lluis Companys in a match that should serve to confirm the good feelings shown against Atlético and to hit the table and close the gap with the top of the classification. It is a different derby, a match between the current League champion and the team that has attracted the most attention at the beginning of the competition.
«Girona, surprisingly for many people, is the leader or co-leader, but for us it is not a surprise. It is a dynamic team, with a great coach and a system similar to ours. They want to have the ball and be protagonists. Furthermore, they have tremendous confidence, with self-confidence, and they will complicate things for us tomorrow,” Xavi Hernández ventured this Saturday. The Barça coach does not trust a rival that is still launched in the League despite the fact that his team arrives with good dynamics after two consecutive wins that have raised the morale of the culés.
And is not for less. Barcelona’s game this Sunday is to continue all the good things that last week brought them. The Blaugranas arrived with many doubts at two key matches in which they were competing for a place in the round of 16 of the Champions League and not falling behind in the League. Xavi’s team passed these two exams with good marks after beating Porto and achieving a balmy victory against the red and whites that left behind many criticisms regarding the game that the blaugranas were playing this season.
Those good feelings now have to be confirmed against a Girona team that has reached cruising speed this season. Barça is four points behind Míchel’s team and winning is crucial to stay at the top of the table. To do this, meniscus. These absences will determine an eleven in which the Catalan coach will once again use Iñaki Peña for the goal and in which the great unknown is whether Joao Cancelo will repeat again as a left-back after the great performance he gave last week. They are the main doubts in an eleven in which the trident formed by Gündogan, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong will once again be in the midfield and in which Raphinha and Joao Félix could once again be Lewandowski’s partners at the forefront.
A rival with sky-high morale
Opposite will be a team that has earned in its own right to be considered a contender for everything. Girona has had a meteoric start to the competition, has a whopping 38 points after the first 45 played and will land at the Lluis Companys with morale through the roof. Míchel’s team has become a practically indestructible team, which makes the most of all its resources and plays permanently without the handbrake on, knowing that this season everything is going smoothly and downhill.
This is the only way to explain why Girona has overcome adverse scores in the last four victories it has achieved in the League and the Cup or that Cristhian Stuani is experiencing, at 37 years old, a second, third or even fourth youth. He is the flag, as a catalyst, of a team that will seek a new feat, in this case at the champion’s home. To do this, Míchel will have to use his ingenuity to reconfigure his starting eleven. The Vallecano coach will not be able to count on Borja García, Yangel Herrera, Jastin, Joel Roca and Toni Villa due to injury, nor will he be able to count on Pablo Torre, a player on loan from Barcelona who has the so-called ‘fear clause’ in his contract.
His absence will not change Míchel’s plan, who will put his praetorian guard in the fray with Blind and Eric García at the back, who does not have such a clause, with Aleix García and David López in the engine room and with the usual trident at the top Of attack. Savinho, Dovbyk and Tsygankov could perfectly be the forward line of Shakhtar that won the UEFA Cup in 2009, but now they are the main argument to dream of a Girona that does not seem to have a ceiling and that wants to continue making history.
Probable lineups:
Barcelona: Iñaki Peña, Koundé, Araujo, Christensen, Cancelo, Gündogan, De Jong, Pedri, Raphinha, Lewandowski and Joao Félix.
Girona: Gazzaniga, Yan Couto, Eric García, Blind, Miguel Gutiérrez, Iván Martín, David López, Aleix García, Savinho, Tsygankov and Dovbyk.
Referee: Díaz de Mera (Castilla-La Mancha).
Stadium and schedule: Lluis Companys. 9:00 p.m. (DAZN).
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