Barcelona vs Celta Vigo

Joint-La Liga leaders Barcelona return to domestic football following an underwhelming European midweek to entertain perennial mid-table tenants Celta Vigo to the Spotify Camp Nou.

Barcelona’s bid to avoid bowing out of the Champions League group stages for the second season on the spin took a massive hit in midweek as Inter Milan defeated them 1-0 in a second-place six-pointer. With three points now separating the sides in Group C, manager Xavi Hernandez could be forgiven for prioritising Barca’s upcoming rematch against Inter in Spain over this fixture. That could be a costly mistake, considering the ‘Catalans’ have picked up just four victories in their last ten La Liga meetings with Celta (D4, L4). But Barcelona’s domestic form is in stark contrast to their European struggle, with the ‘Blaugrana’ winning six successive league matches in the run-up to this contest, including the last five without conceding. Another clean sheet would see them register five straight La Liga shutouts for the first time since 2015.

As for Celta Vigo, Gabriel Veiga’s early opener catapulted Eduardo Coudet’s side to a morale-boosting 1-0 home win over Real Betis last weekend, helping them halt a two-match losing La Liga streak. However, after beating newly-promoted Girona 1-0 on their opening top-flight travel in 2022/23, ‘Los Celestes’ have lost back-to-back away league matches via a three-goal margin after trailing at halftime. Keen to eke out their first top-half finish since 2015/16, the visitors will be all too aware that building on a two-match La Liga record at Camp Nou (W1, L1) would be a statement of intent. That doesn’t strike La Liga experts as a plausible scenario, especially considering Celta’s embarrassing 75% loss ratio across their 56 La Liga away H2Hs makes Camp Nou one of their least favoured destinations.