Next Saturday, 17th of January 2015, a somewhat rejuvenated Celta de Vigo will travel to Catalunya to measure forces with a highly motivated Espanyol side at Estadi Cornella-El Prat for round 19 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on match that will certainly be a very close one between two quality teams that are trying to bounce back after a complicated period with plenty of consecutive defeats.

After imposing a 1-1 draw to Valencia last Saturday at Los Balaídos, Celta traveled to the Basque Country with the purpose of avenging the Copa del Rey first leg match where they were defeated 4-2 at home by Athletic Bilbao. Los Celestes won the second leg match by 2-0 and if it wasn’t for the four goals they conceded at home last week, they would have managed to walk through to the next round of the competition. Celta put up an almost vintage performance and with a bit of more luck they would have snatched a place at the quarter-finals of Copa del Rey.

Celta, who were clearly hurt in their pride, seem to be recovering from the devastating period that struck the team over the last two months. In that particular period, Celta suffered six league defeats plus another two on Copa del Rey, something that has completely ravaged the team’s confidence levels and inflicted an huge blow to the apparent solid foundations of the Galician side.

Next weekend’s clash against Espanyol will definitely be far from easy but if the Celestes manage to replicate some of the good performances they have put up so far this season, as for example to one from their last visit to Catalunya, when they overcame Barcelona at Camp Nou, they might take something very positive from the match.

As for Espanyol, Los Periquitos seem to have put their recent streak of defeats behind their backs, especially after the splendid performance and result they’ve achieved against Valencia last Tuesday on the Copa del Rey. The Catalan team secured a place in the next stage of the competition at the expenses of Los Che, who seemed overly confident after their win at Mestalla on the first leg match.

For the predictably difficult match against Celta next Saturday, Sergio González will probably only not be able to rely on the services of Salva Sevilla, who is still sidelined due to injury.

There aren’t any real favourites for the next Saturday’s match, although judging from Celta’s overall performances away from home so far this season, it is fair to concede them a slight advantage for the clash.

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLLLW

Celta

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - WDLLL

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-2-3-1) - Casilla - Arvilla - Colotto - Alvaro - Fuentes - Sánchez - Joan Jordan - Canas - Sergio Garcia - Montañés - Caicedo

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - Fontas - Gomez - Cabral - Augusto - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Charles

Prediction

Espanyol 1 Celta de Vigo 1