Barcelona will resume their La Liga title challenge on Saturday evening as they head out on the road to face Celta Vigo. Can the hosts pull off a surprise upset to deny the favourites? Here we preview Celta Vigo vs Barcelona on Saturday, November 23rd from Estadio de Balaidos.
How the bookies view it: Odds-on for the away win
Barcelona are the match favourites to the tune of 4/6 to get the road success, but their only two defeats of the season happened away from home, however. Celta Vigo, who start the weekend in mid-table are around a 7/2 quote to pick up three points, but they have struggled against stronger opposition this season, so the odds look fair.
Recent head-to-head: Barcelona seek third straight win
Barcelona won both league meetings against Celta Vigo last season, both by just a one-goal margin. In the last six meetings, the Catalans are W4 D1 L1, the defeat in that run happening away at the Balaidos in 2023. Extending the head-to-head a little further, it hasn’t all gone Barca’s way, with Celta Vigo avoiding defeat in five of their last twelve against them (W3 D2).
Players to watch: Aspas to keep Celta in the game?
Barcelona’s Raphinha is a reasonable 7/4 anytime goalscorer given the season that he has had. The wide attacker has been pivotal in Barca’s free-flowing attacking side, balancing assists and goals well for the campaign. Given that Lewandowski is just tearing up the goalscoring charts, the better value is on Raphinha, who has scored seven goals in 12 league appearances this term.
Iago Aspas and Borja Iglesias are joint top scorers in La Liga for Celta Vigo this season with four goals each. Neither of them have found the back of the net in any of their last four league matches, however. Aspas though, has scored 11 times in meetings between Celta and Barcelona – only Lionel Messi has managed more (12).
Predicted Lineups
Barcelona should have Lewandowski in from the start after the Polish striker didn’t appear during the international break for his country. Barca have a sizable injury list including Andreas Christensen, Ansu Fati and Lamine Yamal. Celta should be somewhere near full strength, but are waiting on late tests for Luca de la Torre and Jailson.
Celta Vigo: Guaita; J Rodriguez, Starfelt, Alonso; Mingueza, Sotelo, Beltran, Manquillo; Bamba, Iglesias, Aspas
Barcelona: Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde; Casado, De Jong; Olmo, Pedri, Raphinha; Lewandowski
Anything else catches the eye?
Nine of the last ten meetings have gone over 2.5 goals and half of the last six have gone above 3.5 as well, so there could well be goals in this. Celta Vigo have a W4 D1 L2 record on home turf this season. Breaking that down, however, both defeats were against current top-three sides.
Home and away, Celta have lost five of six matches played against teams who start the weekend in the top eight (D1). So it’s not particularly inspiring from them, but to their credit, their home losses against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid were only by a one-goal margin.
Barcelona were steaming along on a four-match winning streak before they lost 1-0 at Real Sociedad just before the international break. That left them with a W6 D0 L2 record on the road this season. But they do average 2.75 goals per away game and while they aren’t at full strength, you would still expect them to get through a match like this successfully.
This La Liga match between Celta Vigo and Barcelona will be played on Nov 23, 2024 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Celta Vigo vs Barcelona prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
