Sporting Gijon vs Barcelona Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Barcelona come into this game on the back of a 1-1 home draw with Atletico Madrid on a pretty poor night for the Catalans overall given they lost Leo Messi to injury and dropped points against Atleti in the league for the first time in over 2 years. They would though have been relieved to see Real Madrid fail to beat their record for consecutive wins in La Liga and as a result they are still just 3 points clear of the Catalans in the early standings.

This offers Barca an immediate chance to return to winning ways. Luis Enrique may opt to return to the 3-4-3 formation that brought a 5-1 win at Leganes last weekend. The injury to Messi is a blow obviously but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Barca went on a fine run of form for 2 months early on last season when the Argentine was injured and in Neymar and Luis Suarez they still have two players capable of ripping this Sporting Gijon defence apart.

Sporting made a surprisingly good start to the season, given they lost a host of important players over the summer and were being strongly tipped for the drop. Since the international break though, their frailties have become more obvious. They were hammered 5-0 at the Vicente Calderon by an Atleti side that rarely rack-up big wins and followed that up with a 2-1 defeat at Celta Vigo in midweek. Sporting have though won their last 5 home league games but they did benefit from playing a few teams at the end of last season that had effectively packed up for summer or were more concerned by cup commitments and fielded weakened teams.

It’d be a huge shock if the visitors don’t win this. Arda Turan will most likely replace Messi and he has looked a bit sharper this term and is perhaps settling into the Barca way. So they will still be very strong up front and backing Barcelona -1.5 Asian Handicap at 1.800 looks to offer value.