FC Barcelona vs Real Sociedad Prediction, Preview & Betting Tips

Preview

Joel Amorim May 07, 2015 @ 12:52 am

Next Saturday, 9th of May 2015, the all-powerful Barcelona will entertain David Moyes’ Real Sociedad at the emblematic Camp Nou for round 36 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

After netting in 14 goals in just two La Liga matches, Barcelona have once again decided to display their power in international clashes. The Blaugranas smashed the Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich, by 3-0 at a packed Camp Nou for the first-leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals stage last Wednesday’s night. Pep Guardiola had a sour return to the stadium he called home from 2008 to 2012, while he was at the helm of the Catalan team. His former golden boy, Lionel Messi, was the executioner of Pep’s team last night by scoring two of his team’s three goals and contributing with an assist to Neymar on Barça’s final goal.

With such a motivating result, Luis Enrique’s boys have almost granted a place in the tournament’s final, but in order to do that, they will need to survive the Allianz Arena’s inferno next week. But before that particular match, Barcelona will have an important fixture against Real Sociedad at Camp Nou on Saturday. With just two points more than their eternal rivals of Real Madrid at La Liga’s table, Barça cannot allow any slip up when they host the Basque team next weekend and, for that reason, it is not very likely that Luis Enrique will perform several changes in the team for that match.

As for Real Sociedad, the Basque team has proven to be fairly inconsistent so far this season and not even the arrival of David Moyes back in November served to mitigate such characteristic. Last weekend, Real Sociedad defeated the relegation-threatened Levante at Anoeta and put an end to an incredibly poor run of six matches without a single win.

The Basque team caused a major upset to Barcelona back in January, thus causing some unrest to the Catalan team, but not even such win was enough to motivate David Moyes’ boys.

Regardless of the fact that Barcelona have lost the last two times both sides measured forces, they are firm favourites for the upcoming clash and they will certainly not let the possibility of avenging last January’s defeat at Anoeta go to waste.

Barcelona

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Real Sociedad

Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3

Recent Form - WDDLD

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Montoya -Pique - Mascherano - Jordi Alba - Busquets - Rakitic - Rafinha - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Real Sociedad (4-2-3-1) - Rulli - Zaldua - Gonzalez - Martinez - de la Bella - Pardo - Bergara - Vela - Granero - Prieto - Finnbogason

Injury List / Suspended Players

Barcelona- Mathieu (inj) (in doubt)

Real Sociedad - Castro (inj) - Zurutuza (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

Top Players:

Barcelona - Lionel Messi - Luis Suarez - Neymar

Real Sociedad - Carlos Vela - Xabi Prieto - Esteban Granero

League Positions