At this point in the season, the Saturday trip to Valladolid is as close to dead rubber as a match can be for FC Barcelona. Having to settle for a draw, in the home leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal tie with Inter, is not a good thing. Now Barca heads to the road leg with no advantage on aggregate.
But at least the La Liga match sandwiched in between is as easy (at least on paper) as it gets.
FC Barcelona at Valladolid FYIs
Kick: Sat. May 3, 9pm, Jose Zorilla Stadium, Valladolid, Spain
FC Barcelona Preview Material: Team News Starting Lineup Prediction
Google Result Probability: Barcelona win 74% Draw 15% Valladolid 11%
La Liga Standings: Barcelona 1st, 76 pts Valladolid 20th, 16 pts
Valladolid isn’t just already relegated; they are dead last in the table, and by a very wide margin. They will not just be the bottom side in the whole league- they’ll finish in that spot by a massive margin. In other words, this is kind of like a quasi-friendly for Barca, so that means it’s time to do some squad rotation.
And here is what that looks like.
FC Barcelona Starting Lineup Prediction at Valladolid
Marc-Andre Tter Stegen; Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Ronald Araujo, Gerard Martin; Gavi, Pedri; Ansu Fati, Fermin Lopez, Lamine Yamal; Ferran Torres
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter