Barcelona Vs Real Betis Match Preview: Can The Champions Start Strongly?

While Barcelona won the Joan Gamper trophy in the preseason, Betis have had a topsy-turvy pre-season losing 3-0 to French outfit Montpellier HSC in their last friendly. Barcelona have bolstered their squad considerably in the summer transfer window with coach Luis Enrique emphasizing on the team’s defence and midfield. Big money additions like Samuel Umtiti and Andre Gomes are joined by the likes of Lucas Digne and Denis Suarez. Betis, on the other hand, will be starting their season under the tutelage of new manager Gus Poyet who replaced Pepe Mel at the month of November last season. Poyet was a busy man in the transfer window and has added no less than 12 new players into their squad. Centre Forward Antonio Sanabria is the biggest transfer in from AS Roma for £6.38 m while the inclusions of Aissa Mandi, Felipe Gutierrez, Jonas Martin and Riza Durmisi has made the squad much stronger and well balanced.