Published on: Mar 21, 2021 3:18 pm IST|Updated on: Mar 21, 2021 3:20 pm IST
RS vs BAR Dream11: Barcelona travels to Basque county to take on Real Sociedad in the Reale Arena. After a great start to the season, Real Sociedad has fallen of and are currently 5th in the table, 10 points from the Champions League spots. They are also coming off the back of a 1-0 loss to Granada last week. Barcelona was overtaken by Real Madrid in the table after their win and are currently in 3rd place. La Blaugrana is 4 points behind Atletico Madrid but with their game being after the leaders, they could go into their game, 7 points off the top.
Date: 22nd March, Monday Kick-Off: 1:30 am (IST) Venue: Reale Arena, Basque
La Liga Table: Real Sociedad is in 5th place while Barcelona sits in 3rd.
WATCH La Liga Live Stream and Match Score on Facebook Live in India
Recent Form Real Sociedad: WDDWL Barcelona: WWWDW
Head-to-Head (last 5 meetings): Real Sociedad – 0 Draw – 1 Barcelona – 4
Real Sociedad News
Injury Report and Unavailability:
• Real Sociedad have a major injury crisis with Jon Guridi joining the injury list. • Defenders, Nacho Monreal, Joseba Zaldua, Jon Pacheco and Aritz Elustondo are all out with injuries. • Forwards, Luca Sangalli and Alex Sola, too are nursing injuries and will be unavailable.
Expected Changes and Strategy:
• The backline should remain the same as the one that started against Granada. • Asier Illaramendi could be replaced by Ander Guevara in midfield with David Silva and Mikel Merino on either side of him. • Cristian Portu could return to the right flank in place of Adnan Januzaj.
Real Sociedad Starting XI (likely)
Alex Remiro (GK) Andoni Gorosabel Igor Zubeldia Robin Le Normand Aihen Munoz Ander Guevara David Silva Mikel Merino Cristian Portu Alexander Isak Mikel Oyarzabal
Barcelona News
• Barcelona do not have any fresh injuries for this game. • Defenders, Gerard Pique and Sergi Roberto, are out with injuries and will not be available until next month. • Forwards, Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho, both have meniscus injuries and will remain sidelined.
• Frenkie de Jong started in defence against Huesca but looked out of his element and should be back in midfield with Ronald Araujo starting in defence. • Antoine Griezmann could be granted a rest with Lionel Messi and Ousmane Dembele spearheading the attack.
Barcelona Starting XI (likely)
Marc-Andre ter Stegen Oscar Mingueza Roland Araujo Clement Lenglet Sergino Dest Frenkie de Jong Sergio Busquets Pedri Jordi Alba Ousmane Dembele Lionel Messi
Fantasy Football Tips
Captain Options
Lionel Messi – Easily one of the best players the world has ever seen and has 28 goal contributions in 23 starts. He has 3 goals and 3 assists in his last 3 games and has the potential to change the course of any game all by himself. He has also created 63 chances and completed a whopping 110 successful dribbles.
Mikel Oyarzabal – Oyarzabal has 16 goal contributions (10 goals and 6 assists) in La Liga this season. He has created 38 goal-scoring chances and succeeded in 42% of his attempted dribbles. Playing on the left-wing, he has whipped in 29 accurate crosses with a success rate of 26%.
Differential Pick
Pedri – Pedri has been excellent for Barcelona this season and has 2 assists in his last 2 games for the club. He has created 37 chances this season and has an impressive pass accuracy of 87%. He has successfully completed 22 of his attempted dribbles and has scored 2 goals from his 5 shots on target giving him a conversion rate of 40%. Pedri has been having a break-through season and will look to keep doing well in midfield and nail down a starting spot.
Goalkeeper – ter Stegen Defenders – Le Normand, Gorosabel, Dest, Lenglet Midfielders – Portu, Merino, Pedri, De Jong Forwards – Oyarzabal (VC), Messi (C)
Likely Winner:
The RS vs BAR Today Match Prediction will be an interesting one but the odds favour Barcelona. The Catalans are in great form and have not lost a La Liga game since the first week of December. This game features two teams who have some of the strongest defences in the league with the home side conceding just 22 goals and Barcelona conceding 23 in their 27 league games. However, Barca has scored about 20 goals more than their counterparts and will be hoping to continue that goal-scoring form against Sociedad.