Granada vs Barcelona Prediction - Will the Blaugranas prolong Granada's recent misery?

Next Saturday night, Barcelona will travel to Andalusia to measures forces with Granada at Estádio Nuevo Los Cármenes for round 33 of Liga BBVA on what will be a very important match for both sides for very different reasons.

The home side of Granada had a match to forget during their short trip to La Rosaleda to play with their neighbours - Málaga. Granada suffered a heavy defeat but the team’s head coach Lucas Alcaraz keeps believing that his side only needs six more points to avoid relegation this season. Next Saturday, the Andalusian team will need to be at their best if they want to take something positive from the match against Barcelona. Granada have been on a negative streak of matches (suffering three defeats in the last five matches) and the match against the Blaugranas is probably not the most appropriate to put their recent bad results behind their back.

For the match against Barcelona, Lucas Alcaraz will have the entire squad at his disposal and he will certainly rely on the talent of El-Arabi and Brahimi to upset the Catalan defensive line.

As for Barcelona, the team are going through a positive moment at La Liga with five consecutive wins and eighteen goals scored during those matches. Last Saturday, Barcelona defeated Real Betis at Camp Nou and almost condemned the Andalusian side to certain relegation. The Catalan side did not, however, present a pleasant display against Real Betis and once again it was up to Lionel Messi to solve the Blaugranas’ game “deficiencies”.

For next Saturday’s match, Tata Martino will not be able to count on Piqué due to a pelvic injury and on Victor Valdés that will miss the rest of the season because of a severe knee injury.

When both team met last November at Camp Nou, the home smashed the visitors 4-0 with goals from Iniesta, Cesc Fabregàs, Alexis Sánchez, and Pedro Rodríguez. Next Saturday, Barcelona will certainly not make Granada’s life any easier as they need to win if they want to maintain their hopes of revalidating the league’s title this season.

Granada

Stats: W-10 L-18 D-4

Recent Form - DWLLL

Barcelona

Stats: W-25 L-4 D-3

Recent Form - WWWWW

Possible Line-ups

Granada (4-3-3) - Roberto - Nyom - Coeff - Murillo - Angulo - Recio - Fatau - Iturra - Riki - El Arabi - Brahimi

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Pinto - Montoya - Bartra - Mascherano - Adriano - Busquets - Song - Iniesta - Pedro - Sánchez - Messi.

Prediction: Granada 1 Barcelona 3