Competition: Spanish La Liga 2016-17
Date: Saturday, 11th February, 15:15 GMT
Stadium: Estadio de Mendizorroza.
Sports Livestream ⚽ JOIN NOW for FREE
Instant access to the BT Sport, Sky Sports and Eurosport
Alaves vs Barcelona Preview
Alaves has been winless in four of their last five outings, which includes three draws and a loss. The team is currently settled in the 12th spot of the Spanish top flight table, 14 points above the bottom three relegation area and eight points below the final Europa League qualifying berth for next season presently held by Villarreal.
Los Babazorros are coming off a 4-2 victory over bottom three squad Sporting Gijon on the road at the El Molinon Stadium last Sunday to snap a four-game winless slide, as per Sporting Life.
Alaves forward Ruben Sobrino opened the scoring in the 10th minute to give the visitors a one-point advantage at the break.
Christian Santos then doubled the lead with a spot kick in the 58th minute before Edgar Mendez made it a 3-0 count with another penalty kick in the 70th.
Sporting forward Lacina Traore trimmed the gap to 3-1 with a goal in the 84th minute, but defender Alexis Ruano scored Alaves’ fourth goal to seal the win. Carlos Castro then netted a consolation goal for the hosts on the stroke of full-time.
Meanwhile, Barcelona routed Athletic Bilbao, 3-0, at the Camp Nou last Saturday to bounce back from their poor performance in the previous round, Sports Mole reported.
Head coach Luis Enrique put Paco Alcacer in the starting lineup with Lionel Messi and Neymar up front and the Spanish striker netted the first goal of the match in the 18th minute.
Messi doubled the lead in the 40th before Aleix Vidal completed the final count in the 67th.
The win was Barça’s third in their last four games as they have overtaken Sevilla for the second spot in the overall standings, only one point behind current league leaders Real Madrid.
Prediction and Predicted Lineup
The predicted result is another 3-1 blowout by Barcelona.
Alaves starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Pacheco; Vigaray, Alexis, Feddal, Garcia; Torres, Krsticic; Katai, Sobrino, Ortega; Santos
Barcelona starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): ter Stegen; Vidal, Pique, Umtiti, Mathieu; Rafinha, Gomes, Turan; Messi, Alcacer, Neymar
