Barcelona vs Cádiz, La Liga: Team News, Preview, Lineups, Score Prediction
FC Barcelona (13th, 1pt) vs Cádiz CF (6th, 3pts)*
*Points and positions at the time of writing on Saturday
Competition/Round: 2023-24 La Liga, Matchday 2
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Xavi Hernández, Ronald Araujo, Raphinha, Iñigo Martínez, Iñaki Peña, Marcos Alonso, Sergiño Dest, Clément Lenglet (out)
Cádiz Outs & Doubts: Brian Ocampo, Sergi Guardiola, Victor Chust, Gonzalo Escalante, Juan Cala (out)
Date/Time: Sunday, August 20, 2023, 7.30pm CET (Barcelona), 6.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 1.30pm ET, 10.30am PT (USA), 11pm IST (India)
Venue: Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz
VAR: Juan Luis Pulido Santana
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Not Available (Canada), SuperSport (Nigeria), Sports18 (India), Viaplay Sports 1 (UK), M+ LALIGA TV (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a frustrating performance and result away to Getafe in the season opener, Barcelona return home for their first La Liga game of the season at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium as the defending champions welcome Cádiz for some Sunday evening action in the Catalan capital.
Barça come into this one after a tough week on and off the pitch, losing Ronald Araujo to a hamstring injury and having two-game bans handed out to manager Xavi Hernández and winger Raphinha for their red cards last week. Nothing was done in the transfer front, and no progress was made regarding registrations.
It’s not an easy time to feel good about anything related to Barça, and it’s easy to overreact and project a tough season based on the last 10 days at the club. But all the transfer uncertainty will go away once the window closes, there is optimism at the club about registrations being completed and it looks as though João Cancelo will indeed join the team and add serious quality to the right-back position.
But they also need to find a way to win even during this tough period, and Real Madrid remain perfect and look pretty solid after their opening two matches. They will look to make a serious title challenge this time, and even this early in the season Barça cannot afford to fall too far behind.
Winning on Sunday is job number one, but providing an encouraging performance is also very important. But Cádiz will make sure to be as difficult to break down as possible, and we might have to sit through another frustrating 90 minutes of football. Cádiz aren’t as dirty and psychologically brutal as Getafe, but they are just as stubborn and tactically sound.
They play a classic 4-4-2 with a very low block designed to close space in the middle and force teams to play out wide and send crosses into the box for Cádiz’s tall center-backs to deal with. These types of games are where Barça have struggled the most under Xavi, and there is not a lot of hope for things to get better with the specific group of players available on Sunday.
The midfield quartet of Oriol Romeu, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Ilkay Gündogan needs to bring more inspiration and creativity than they did last week, and Robert Lewandowski needs to find a way to be more involved. Ez Abde will most likely take Raphinha’s spot on the right and try to make the best out of his first start as a Blaugrana, going at defenders and providing service into the box for Lewy and the midfielders.
Alejandro Balde could also prove to be a key factor in this one, making big runs from deep to arrive late in the box and perhaps receive a pass that catches the Cádiz backline off guard for just a second and unlocks a real scoring chance. Variety in passing and much more movement is necessary, and Barça must give the crowd something to feel good about as they try to create an atmosphere in the new temporary home.
This is bound to be tough and really frustrating at times, but Barça can surprise us all with a really good performance when everything seems to be working against them. Let’s see if the full week of training has resulted in a stronger coaching strategy than last week, and if the players on the pitch show more inspiration this time around.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (3-2-4-1): Ter Stegen; Roberto, Kounde, Christensen; Romeu, De Jong; Ez Abde, Pedri, Gündogan, Balde; Lewandowski
Cádiz (4-4-2): Ledesma; Carcelén, Hernández, Fali, Hernández; Alejo, Alcaraz, Emeterio, Machís; Martí, Ramos
PREDICTION
This Barça team inspires very little confidence right now and Cádiz are super annoying to play against. I expect another flat performance against a parked bus, but I do think Barça find a way to win this time: 2-0 to the good guys.
