Girona vs Barcelona: La Liga Preview & Potential Line-ups

La Liga leaders Barcelona head to the Estadio Municipal de Montilivi to meet fellow Catalan rivals Girona in an exciting league fixture on Saturday afternoon. 

Despite a saved penalty in the 93rd minute, ten-man Girona suffered a late 1-0 defeat at Villarreal last weekend thanks to a 101st-minute spot-kick.

That result knocked Los Blanquivermells down from a club-record seven-game unbeaten run in La Liga (W3, D4) and potentially ruled them out of the race for European placings.

Stuck in 12th, seven points adrift of sixth-placed Real Betis, Michel's men must bounce back from last weekend's upset if they're to become a relevant factor in the Europa League run-in.

However, that could be easier said than done, as they play host to high-flying Barcelona, who come into proceedings off the back of a 1-0 Copa del Rey win over Real Sociedad on Thursday.

Xavi Hernandez's side dispatch bottom-half Getafe by the identical scoreline last Sunday, maintaining a three-point cushion at the La Liga summit.

Match Preview

Girona

Girona boss Michel as an added incentive to beat the odds on Saturday after losing his previous three managerial encounters against Barcelona.

But Los Blanquivermells have lost three of their four previous top-flight meetings with the Blaugrana (D1), conceding an alarming 3.2 goals per game on average.

Girona will at least feel confident about getting on the scoresheet after scoring in 14 consecutive La Liga outings before the abovementioned scoring blank at Villarreal.

Barcelona

Barcelona have hit the ground running since a 3-1 El Clasico defeat at Real Madrid in mid-October, clocking a whopping 22 of 24 available points in the aftermath (W7, D1) to leapfrog Los Merengues in the table.

There's another reason for optimism in the visiting camp, as Xavi's lads have not lost any of their last 29 La Liga matches against newly-promoted sides (W21, D8) since losing to Espanyol in 2009.

But their recent away wins have lacked conviction, with their three top-flight victories on hostile turf in the lead-up to this trip yielding a single-goal margin. 

Girona vs Barcelona Potential Line-ups

Girona (4-2-3-1): Paulo Gazzaniga; Arnau Martinez, Javi Hernandez, Espinosa, Miguel Gutierrez; Oriol Romeu, Aleix Garcia; Rodrigo Riquelme, Ivan Martin, Toni Villa; Valentin Castellanos. 

Barcelona (4-3-3): Marc-Andre ter Stegen; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Andres Christensen, Alejandro Balde; Pedri, Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong; Ousmane Dembele, Ansu Fati, Gavi.