Barcelona vs Alaves Preview

Barcelona kick off their La Liga campaign with this fixture that is expected to bring three points for the defending champions, but Alaves’ survival last season proves that they are capable of anything.

Blaugrana stormed to the La Liga title last season with 17 points separating them from their closest challengers, and they were unbeaten until the penultimate match of that campaign.

This season is likely to be a lot more difficult as Real Madrid and Atletico plot to win the crown as well.

Andres Iniesta is the only major departure from Camp Nou this summer, with the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele starting the season in good shape, Barce could still retain their crown.

Alaves were expected to be relegated from La Liga last season by the time the winter transfer window was open.

By that time, they had already fired two managers, however, Abelardo Fernández came in as their new manager and somehow managed to steer them towards a comfortable survival.

They still remain one of the teams who are favourites to be relegated this season and they will be looking to start their season well after a good pre-season.

Barcelona have kept just 2 clean sheets in their last 17 games, while Alaves have scored in all of their last 7 seven pre-season so it could be a game of many goals here.

Unsurprisingly, bookmakers make Barcelona very strong odds-on favourites to the point where they are unbackable even in accumulators.

Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions

Barcelona

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
W	Barcelona		1-0		Real Sociedad	20 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Mamelodi Sundowns		1-3		Barcelona	16 May, 2018	Friendly
L	Levante		5-4		Barcelona	13 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Barcelona		5-1		Villarreal	9 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
D	Barcelona		2-2		Real Madrid	6 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División

Alaves

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
L	Sevilla FC		1-0		Alavés	19 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Alavés		3-1		Athletic Bilbao	12 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Málaga		0-3		Alavés	6 May, 2018	Spanish Primera División
L	Alavés		0-1		Atletico Madrid	29 Apr, 2018	Spanish Primera División
W	Las Palmas		0-4		Alavés	22 Apr, 2018	Spanish Primera División

H2H

LAST FIVE GAMES					DATE	COMPETITION
Barcelona		2-1		Alavés	28 Jan, 2018	Spanish Primera División
Alavés		0-2		Barcelona	26 Aug, 2017	Spanish Primera División
Barcelona		3-1		Alavés	27 May, 2017	Spanish Copa del Rey
Alavés		0-6		Barcelona	11 Feb, 2017	Spanish Primera División
Barcelona		1-2		Alavés	10 Sep, 2016	Spanish Primera División

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera:

Spanish Primera Table

Spanish Primera Results