Following this week's Champions League miracle, Barcelona face a tough battle in LaLiga as they visit struggling Deportivo La Coruna at Estadio Municipal de Riazor on Sunday. Barcelona have beaten Deportivo quite heavily in their last two encounters, 4-0 at Camp Nou earlier this season and 8-0 away last season. However, before those two matches Deportivo were able to hold Barcelona to two consecutive 2-2 draws, both of them at Camp Nou. The last time Deportivo beat Barcelona was in 2008.
Deportivo are still struggling to avoid relegation, they have been keeping afloat above the danger zone for a while, but 18th-placed Granada are just five points behind. While they need any points they can get, there is no pressure on them for the Barcelona match, they have nothing to lose in fixtures against the league's giants. In fact, they managed to hold both Atletico Madrid and Villarreal to draws lately. Florin Andone and Pedro Mosquera are suspended for this match, while Sidnei and Gael Kakuta are injury doubts.
Barcelona have pulled off a miraculous comeback this week, they seemed down and out at 3-1 with two minutes left in their game against PSG, but somehow they scored three goals in five minutes (two of them in stoppage time) to knock out the French champions. That extended their winning streak to five games in all competitions, and in the last three of those they scored no less than 17 goals. Aleix Vidal and Jeremy Mathieu are still injured, while coach Luis Enrique will probably choose to revert to the classic 4-3-3 formation for this match.
Probable line-ups:
Deportivo: Lux - Juanfran, Arribas, Albentosa, Navarro - Borges, Bergantinos - Fajir, Colak, Gil - Joselu
Barcelona: Ter Stegen - Roberto, Umtiti, Pique, Alba - Gomes, Busquets, Iniesta - Messi, Suarez, Neymar
My prediction: Barcelona to win 3-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Deportivo win - 13.00
Draw - 6.50
Barcelona win - 1.22
03/14/17, 11:03:20 PM
