Barcelona hopes to continue their excellent shape in 2025 while taking Alaves in their newest La Liga collision in the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Company. Hansi Flick's have been in a bad competition form in recent months, although they are in an enchanting 7-1 win over Valencia last weekend.
Sunday's game is a cart-off from 2 p.m. in Catalonia, and the early starts are rather unusual for Barcelona. The time slot for competitions was introduced for the first time during the 2020-21 season, and since then the Catalans have only played five games and with a rather unwanted record.
According to MD, the five 14:00 Kick-Offs of Barcelona have seen one win, three draw and a defeat. Their debut match in this time slot was a 4-0 victory over Osasuna (2020-21), followed by three stalemate against Cadiz (1-1, 2020-21), Espanyol (1-1, 2022-23) and Rayo Vallecano (1 -1, 2023-24). The last game was against Las Palmas earlier this season, and that resulted in a defeat of 2-1 home-this was the first loss of Hansi Flick at the Estadi Olimpic since his appointment last summer.
As such, this is a “curse” that Barcelona would like to end up against Alaves. The side of Flick will start as big favorites to continue their strong start of 2025, but the German coach is well aware of the threat that the Basque side can cause. He also understands that his players must be 100% to guarantee the victory.
Barcelona cannot afford to drop foolish points between now and the end of the season, given that they have to come up with a shortage of seven points to Real Madrid in the La Liga-Title Race. The results this season show that it is executable, although they have to be at their best if they want to protect their first league title since the 2022-23 campaign, when Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba still at the club.
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