Next Saturday, 8th of November 2014, a somehow fragilized Barcelona will travel to Andalusia to measure forces with Almeria at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for round 11 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a match that the Blaugranas desperately need to win in order to keep the other title contenders in reach.

After being defeated at Santiago Bernabéu, no one could have certainly expected that Barcelona would lose at home against Celta de Vigo last weekend. But the truth is that they did and because of that result, the team changed places with their eternal rivals, Real Madrid, at the top of La Liga’s table.

Luis Enrique’s boys did almost everything within their grasp to score against the Galician team at Camp Nou, but all their efforts were not enough to overcome a super inspired Sergio Álvarez, who kept Celta’s goal unsurmountable until the end of the match. “El Gato de Catoira” frustrated all the intents of Messi and Suárez to score and some of his stops were a true example of remarkable goalkeeping. Despite their inability to score, Barcelona’s main problem was also their leaky defense line that experienced several difficulties, especially in the second half, to deal with Nolito, Orellana and Larrivey’s quick and synchronized attacking movements. Barça’s usual versatile 4-3-3 style failed to unmount Toto Berizzo’s strict 4-3-3 approach that quite often closed all of their opponents’ passing lines and forced them to slow their game.

After two consecutive defeats, Barcelona managed to defeat Ajax at Amsterdam for the UEFA Champions League last Wednesday’s night and such win might help to restore the team’s fragilized morale levels.

For the match at Andalusia, Luis Enrique will probably still not be able to rely on the contribution of Iniesta, Sergi Roberto, Vermaelen and Mathieu, all currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Almeria, the recent weeks at La Liga have been a complete disaster, as the team lost three of their last four matches. Francisco Rodríguez’s boys lost to Levante last weekend thus conceding their third defeat in a row. That defeat placed Almeria dangerously close to the relegation line, with just one point more than Levante, who are currently on the 18th place of the table.

Despite their recent consecutive defeats and some criticism to Luis Enrique’s work, Barcelona are firm favourites to grab the three points on next Saturday’s match.

Almeria

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LLLDW

Barcelona

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WLWLW

Possible Line-ups

Almeria (4-2-3-1) - Ruben - Navarro - Dos Santos - Trujillo - Dubarbier - Verza - Corona - Zongo - Mendez - Teye - Bifouma

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Dani Alves - Piqué - Mascherano - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Xavi - Rakitic - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Prediction

Almeria 1 Barcelona 3