Barcelona host leaders Atletico Madrid on a pivotal weekend in the La Liga title race as Real Madrid play Sevilla.
Having trailed Atletico by 13 points in January, victory on Saturday would send third-placed Barca top for the first time this term. Real, who are second on the same number of points as Barca, face fourth-placed Sevilla on Sunday.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have the advantage of a better head-to-head record against Barca and Atletico.
Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman, who is set to be absent from the touchline as he completes a two-match for using derogatory language towards a match official, had virtually written off his side’s title chances earlier this season.
However, the Catalans have pulled themselves back into contention with 16 victories in 19 games since the turn of the year to leave themselves two points behind Atletico with four games remaining.
“I don’t know if the result of this match will be decisive, but it will be important,” Koeman said.
“We are fighting with two other teams for the league title. We could not imagine being where we are now a few months ago. To be champion, we need to win every game.
“I am convinced if we win every game then we will be champions.”
Atletico arrive at Barcelona in indifferent form with three wins from their past six games.
But boss Diego Simeone, who is still searching for his first victory at the Nou Camp as a coach, says he has no special plans for the fixture.
“We’re playing with a really clear idea this season as you can see,” Simeone said. “We don’t change a lot. We’ll try and play using the good points of how we’ve been playing up to now.
“They are a side who have won a lot of points on the spin, they play good football and have done a great job in recovering from a slow first half of the season.
“We’ll look to take the game in the direction we want it to go in and play our own game.”
This post was originally published on this site
