Barcelona will aim to maintain their lead at the summit of the La Liga table when they face Catalan rivals Girona at Estadi Montilivi on Saturday afternoon.
Having played 17 games, Barcelona sit three points clear of second-placed Real Madrid and six points above third-placed Real Sociedad.
🔵⚪️🔙🔋🔜🔴⚪️ pic.twitter.com/MJMmsoyCi7— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 27, 2023
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Meanwhile, Girona find themselves in eleventh place – four points clear of the relegation zone and a whopping 23 points worse off than Barca.
Girona have only managed to win five of their 18 La Liga games this season, recording six draws and seven losses along the way.
Only six teams in the division have picked up fewer victories than Girona this term, while only two sides have registered more draws.
Girona suffered a 1-0 defeat to Villarreal last time out. However, they have only lost one of their past eight league matches – picking up three wins and four draws in that time.
Having conceded at least one goal in each of their previous 21 games across all competitions, Girona will struggle to deal with Barcelona this weekend.
On the flip side, Barca have lost just one of their 17 La Liga games this season – securing 14 wins and two draws in the process.
Not only do Xavi’s side boast the best defensive record in the division (6), but they also have the second-best offensive record (36).
Remarkably, Barcelona have kept a whopping 13 clean sheets in the league this term and have scored at a rate of 2.1 goals per game in 2022-23.
Having avoided defeat in each of their last 12 games across all competitions – winning their previous four – Xavi’s men will be confident of seeing off Girona.
Head-to-head: Girona and Barcelona played out four La Liga encounters between 2017 and 2019, with Barca winning on three occasions during that period.
The aggregate score of those four meetings stands at 13-3 in favour of Barcelona, with Barca thrashing Girona 6-1 at Camp Nou in 2018.
Team news: Santiago Bueno is suspended for Girona following his red card last time out, while Ibrahima Kebe, David Lopez and Reinier are injured.
Barcelona will be without the suspended duo of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres on Saturday after they picked up red cards earlier this month.
Given Barca’s phenomenal domestic form this season, Xavi’s men should get the better of an inconsistent Girona outfit this weekend.
Forebet predicts that Barcelona will score over 1.5 goals on their way to beating Girona, although the visitors are unlikely to add to their collection of clean sheets.