Barcelona vs Deportivo Alaves 14/02/21

Injury-wracked Barcelona welcome La Liga relegation fighters Deportivo Alaves to Camp Nou, looking to post back-to-back home league wins for the first time since mid-December.

Barcelona are enjoying an impressive 11-game unbeaten streak in La Liga (W9, D2), though their midweek’s Copa del Rey trip to Sevilla did result in a 2-0 defeat. The Catalan giants have not lost any of their last seven La Liga home matches nonetheless (W5, D2), scoring 17 goals while conceding seven in return. What’s more, the ‘Blaugrana’ have outscored Deportivo Alaves in seven of their last eight top-flight meetings at Camp Nou (L1), with that lone failure coming in September 2016. Since then, Ronald Koeman’s men have defeated Alaves in three consecutive La Liga games at home by an aggregate score of 9-2. Winning the first half would pave the way for another victory, as Barca have won all ten La Liga fixtures when doing so this season!

Meanwhile, Alaves secured a narrow 1-0 home win over Real Valladolid last time out, putting an end to a dismal six-game winless La Liga run (D2, L4). Yet, a lack of firepower up front has seen Deportivo score under 1.5 goals in each of their last four La Liga trips (D2, L2), which has been the case in their previous four competitive visits to Camp Nou (L4). Additionally, only Villarreal (2) have scored fewer second-half goals on the road than Alaves (4) this La Liga season, with Abelardo Fernandez’s men finding the net inside the final 15 minutes of play in just one of their ten top-flight trips so far. At the other end of the pitch, ‘El Glorioso’ have only kept a clean sheet twice in their ten away La Liga matches this term.