Next Sunday, 24th of August 2014, the “renewed” Barcelona will go head-to-head with Elche at the splendorous Camp Nou for the opening round of the 2014-15 Liga BBVA edition.

The arrival of the Asturian manager Luis Enrique to the helm of Barcelona this season will certainly allow the team to somehow travel back in time and restore that game style they develop at La Masia. After a fairly disappointing overall performance last term, it is time for Barcelona to turn the page and to start writing a new chapter on their already rich history. Their new head coach, Luis Enrique, has had a key role at Barcelona’s B team for quite some time and was the man responsible for “bringing to life” some of the most talented young Spanish footballers from today.

Barcelona made some important signings this Summer, as they brought in the skillful Croatian midfielder Rakitic from Sevilla, the erratic Luis Suárez from Liverpool and Thomas Vermaelen from Arsenal, only to name a few. With Suárez still suspended, Luis Enrique will most certainly implement his versatile 4-3-3 style in the team for the first official match of the season, with Neymar and maybe Rafinha or Pedro backing up Lionel Messi at the front.

For the clash against Elche, the new Blaugrana manager will not be able to rely on the contribution of Luis Suárez, who is suspended, and of the newcomers Marc-André ter Stegen and Thomas Vermaelen, who are sidelined due to injury.

As for Elche, after only granting a place at the Spanish football top tier in the last days of the previous season, they will start this La Liga campaign visiting one of the main contenders to the title. The team’s manager, Fran Escribá, welcomed some new quality players this Summer, such as the skilled Polish goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton, who arrived on loan from PSV and Mario Pasalic, a talented young Croatian midfielder, who arrived from Chelsea on a season-long loan deal.

Los Franjiverdes had had a very interesting pre-season campaign as they were not defeated on any of the matches they took part in. Elche’s team seems to be enjoying a fairly positive moment and they will travel to Camp Nou hoping to cause an upset to Luis Enrique’s “renewed” Barcelona.

When both sides met at Catalunya last term, the home side trashed Elche 4-0, thanks to a hat-trick by Alexis Sánchez and one goal by Pedro. Barcelona are firm favourites for next Sunday’s match, but they will certainly need to work hard in order to defeat a well organized Elche side.

Barcelona

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWLDW

Elche

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDWDW

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Montoya - Piqué - Mascherano - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Iniesta - Rakitic - Neymar - Pedro - Messi

Elche (4-5-1) - Tyton - Damián - Pelegrín - José Ángel - Albacar - Mosquera - Adrián - Coro - Fajr - Garry Rodrigues - Cristian Herrera

Prediction

Barcelona 2 Elche 0