Barcelona vs Leganes Preview and Prediction
Camp Nou
on Feb. 19, Sunday
2016-2017 La Liga season encounter.
Barcelona vs Leganes Preview
Barcelona has been trailing current league leaders and arch-rivals Real Madrid all season and is now only one point behind Los Blancos in the standings with 16 rounds left in this term. The team had dropped two drawn matches in their last six outings and is still two points ahead of third-place squad Sevilla.
Barça is coming off a 6-0 rout of another newly-promoted team, Alaves, on the road at the Mendizorrotza Stadium last Saturday, as per Goal.
Luis Suárez led head coach Luis Enrique’s squad with a brace in the 37th and 67th minutes while his two other frontline cohorts, Neymar and Lionel Messi, also netted one goal each in the 40th and 59th minutes respectively.
Alaves defender Alexis Ruano netted an own goal in the 63rd minute while Ivan Rakitic scored a goal in the 65th to complete the Blaugrana’s six-goal masterpiece.
Meanwhile, Leganes was blanked by a 10-man bottom three squad Sporting Gijon, 0-2, at their own home ground of Butarque Stadium last Sunday, via Sporting Life.
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After a goalless first half of action, Sporting defender Roberto Canella broke the game’s deadlock in the 66th minute with a left-footed shot off an assist by teammate Burgui.
Goalkeeper Diego Marino was then sent off four minutes later after getting booked with a straight red card to give head coach Asier Garitano’s side a chance to equalize with 20 minutes left before full-time.
However, Los Pepineros were unable to find the equalizer in the given time period and instead surrendered another goal to the undermanned squad with an 83rd-minute goal by Burgui.
Prediction and Predicted Lineup
The predicted result is a 3-0 romp by Barcelona.
Barcelona starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): ter Stegen; Vidal, Umtiti, Mathieu, Digne; Rakitic, Busquets, Gomes; Messi, Suárez, Neymar
Leganes starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Herrerin; Bustinza, Mantovani, Insua, Rico; Perez, Gabriel; Samu, Bueno, Szymanowski; Guerrero
