Las Palmas vs Barcelona Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Feb 18, 2016 @ 01:04 am

Next Saturday, 20th of February 2016, the league leaders Barcelona will visit the Canary Islands to measure forces with UD Las Palmas at Estadio Gran Canaria for Round 25 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Last Wednesday, Luis Enrique has returned to El Molinón, a place he still calls home, to play the match that Barcelona had in hand against Sporting de Gijón. The current Spanish champions had a golden opportunity to increase the point gap to Atlético Madrid and they made it happen by clawing a solid 3-1 win. A doblete by Lionel Messi and a second-half goal by Luis Suárez imposed the 13th defeat of the season to the local tema and at the same time allowed Barça to cement their position at the top of the table.

Last Sunday, Barcelona had a somewhat magical night at Camp Nou and they managed to avenge last season’s home defeat against Celta de Vigo hammering them by 6-1 this time around. The Blaugranas, who had been humiliated at Los Balaídos back in September, had their revenge, thus kicking Celta out of the European football places of the league table.

Next time out, Barcelona will have an important and predictably complicated match at Gran Canaria against a team, UD Las Palmas, who need to collect some points in order to escape the relegation zone. For that particular clash, Luis Enrique will have almost all his players at disposal with the exception of Rafinha, who remains sidelined due to a long term injury, and of Busquets, who is currently suspended.

As for UD Las Palmas, Los Amarillos are going through a very delicate moment at La Liga as they have only won one of their last five league matches. Their head coach, the charismatic Quique Sétien, needs to put up something very special in order for his team to claw at least one point against Barça next Saturday, but it will surely not be easy to achieve that.

UD Las Palmas did good against Sevilla last time out, but they ended up losing the match by 2-0. In fact, this has been probably the biggest problem for the islanders so far this season, as they display some attractive football, but ended up losing several matches in a row.

For the important clash against Barça, Quique Setién will not be able to rely on the contribution of Wakaso, who is currently suspended, and on Hernan, Javi Castellano, Dani Castellano and Angel Montoro, who are all sidelined due to injury.

UD Las Palmas

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LLWLL

Barcelona

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWDWW

Possible Line-ups

UD Las Palmas (4-2-3-1) - Varas - Garcia - Aythami - Bigas - Garrido - El Zhar - Mesa - Viera - Momo - Tanausu - Willian José

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Alves - Pique - Mathieu - Alba - Mascherano - Turan - Iniesta - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Injury List / Suspended Players

UD Las Palmas - Dani Castellano (inj) - Javi Castellano (inj) - Hernan (inj) - Angel Montoro (inj) - Wakaso (sus)

Barcelona - Rafinha (inj) - Busquets (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions