Barcelona will clash heads with Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium on Sunday evening hoping to return to winning ways in the La Liga. The Catalans were quite impressive in midweek and managed to secure a comfortable 4-2 victory against Tottenham Hotspur away at the Wembley Stadium. Ernesto Valverde’s men will come into this game with a lot of confidence which might help them come away with maximum points from this weekend’s clash.
Valverde should stick with his favoured 4-3-3 formation and might make a few changes for this league match.
4-3-3 Barcelona Predicted Lineup To Face Valencia
Defence
Marc Andre ter Stegen will feature as the first-choice goalkeeper for Valverde’s side while Jasper Cillessen has to play second-fiddle to him once again on the Catalans’ bench. Samuel Umtiti should be fit to start this weekend’s match and would line up alongside Gerard Pique at the heart of the Barca backline.
Clément Lenglet will be on stand-by and might replace Umtiti in Valverde’s first-team if he fails to recover in time for this clash against Valencia. Sergi Roberto is expected to play as the right-back while Jordi Alba would look to use his pace and agility down the left flank.
Valencia looked woeful versus Manchester United in the final third so the Barca defenders should not have much trouble dealing with their threat and securing a clean sheet away at the Mestalla Stadium.
Midfield
The Catalans could line up with the midfield trio of Phillipe Coutinho, Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic after Valverde opted to start with Arthur Melo in midfield against Tottenham Hotspur, which worked well as Barca were able to earn a well-deserved 4-2 victory on Wednesday night.
They would be responsible for dictating play and creating chances for the front players in the opposition half. Coutinho got his name on the scoresheet versus Spurs in midweek and would be a significant threat from midfield going forward.
Attack
Barcelona’s fearsome front three of Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi would be expected to get the goals against Valencia and make a difference on Sunday night. Dembele was rested in midweek so he should be fresh and raring to go this weekend.
All three forwards have combined well during this campaign so it would be difficult for the Valencia defenders to cope with the Barca firepower on Sunday.
Messi also managed to score a brace of goals versus Spurs and will be confident about finding the back of the net in this upcoming La Liga encounter.
