Barcelona welcome Celta Vigo to Camp Nou on Sunday, needing a win to keep themselves in what is proving to be an extremely tight La Liga titles race.
Barca currently trail league-leaders Atletico Madrid by just four points, although there are only two games remaining this season.
Xavi, The Baller. #OTD 2009. Copa del Rey final. pic.twitter.com/CwBCmaGSrH— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 13, 2021
Xavi, The Baller. #OTD 2009. Copa del Rey final. pic.twitter.com/CwBCmaGSrH
Further down the standings, eighth-place Celta Vigo trail Barcelona by 26 points and look set to narrowly miss out on a European spot.
Barca thrust themselves into the title conversation by stringing together a remarkable 19-game unbeaten streak between December and April.
However, they have dropped off the pace recently – winning just three of their previous seven matches (two draws, two defeats).
After losing to Real Madrid last month, Barca picked up back-to-back wins before suffering another defeat, this time at the hands of Granada.
A victory over Valencia followed, but Ronald Koeman’s men now head into Sunday’s clash on the back of successive draws.
Barcelona were 2-0 up against Levante on Tuesday and even led 3-2 with a few minutes remaining. Still, Levante managed to bag a late equaliser and damage Barca’s title hopes.
Having beaten Getafe 1-0 on Wednesday, Celta Vigo come into their second-to-last game of the season on an impressive four-game winning streak.
Celta have also beaten Osasuna, Levante and Villarreal recently – scoring nine goals across their previous four wins.
In fact, Celta have scored over 1.5 goals in three of their last four games and have only failed to score in one of their previous nine.
It is also worth pointing out that Celta have kept three clean sheets in their last six outings and have only conceded over 1.5 goals in one of their previous six.
Head-to-head: Barcelona crushed Celta 3-0 in the reverse fixture back in October, meaning they have only lost one of their last eight meetings with Celta.
Let’s not forget that Barca have also scored over 1.5 goals in six of their previous seven matches against Celta.
Team news: Barcelona currently have three players sidelined through injury – Moussa Wague, Philippe Coutinho and Sergi Roberto.
Celta have two goalkeepers – Sergio Alvarez and Ruben Blanco – out injured, along with winger Emre Mor.
Barca have endured a couple of slip-ups of late, but they aren’t expected to throw away their title ambitions against Celta.
Forebet predicts that Barcelona will score over 2.5 goal en route to beating Celta, keeping their faint title hopes alive in the process.