© EuroFootball.com
This weekend will see the matches of the 31st round of the Spanish Championship ("La Liga"). On Saturday, 3 out of 10 matches of this round will take place. Here are brief descriptions of these matches.
(11th place in the championship) - Barcelona (18) Start: 19:00 Lithuania time The "Espanyol" players fighting for survival in the league have shown that they can compete with the best - a few weeks ago they defeated the team in second place at home, and in the last round they defeated the team fighting for a place in the UEFA Cup 2-1. Meanwhile, "Sevilla" lost their last three matches with a total score of 8-1. Barcelona will be without suspended defender and the injured midfielder due to a throat infection.
(15) - (1) Start: 21:00 Lithuania time As strange as it may seem, the "Albacete" players played better in the last 7 Spanish Championship matches - 4 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss, while "Real" has 3 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss. Despite this dry statistics, the clear favorite in the match is "Real", who are fighting for the title of champions. However, the coach of "Albacete", a former player of "Valencia" and the reserve team coach, said that he will "teach Real a lesson" for the sake of his former team. Madrid team will most likely be without defender Ivan Helguera due to injury suffered in a friendly match between the Spain and Denmark national teams on Wednesday, while David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, recovering from minor injuries, should return to the field.
(4) - (9) Start: 23:00 Lithuania time In this match, "Barca" forward Patrick Kluivert from the Netherlands should return to the field after a two-month break due to a knee injury - he finally recovered. It seems that it didn't hurt him, as Kluivert scored 3 goals in just 45 minutes in a match between the main and reserve "Barcelona" lineups during training. Another Dutchman, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, should also return to the field after a three-month break, but the coach of Catalonia, Frank Rijkaard, did not confirm that these two players will play in this match. "Barcelona" has won nine consecutive matches in the Spanish championship, and after being eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Glasgow Celtic, they may focus all their efforts on La Liga. Currently, they are 6 points behind the leading "Real" and will play one more game head-to-head. Former player of the Catalan team Luis Garcia, now representing "Villareal", said that it will be very difficult to play against "Barca", but added that his team can spring surprises. Another former "Barca" player, now playing at the "Villareal" club, Brazilian Sonny Anderson, said he is confident he can score a goal against his former team in this match. "Villareal" has lost 7 times in their last 10 matches and is in 9th place in the Spanish championship with 40 points.
