Barcelona vs Cultural Leonesa Predictions

Barcelona may have won by just a goal to nil in the first leg of this Copa del Rey tie, but they did so with an element of ease, while they’ll be confident of getting the job done in destructive fashion now back on their own patch, just as they did when they hosted Leonesa in this competition back in 2009.

When the pair met in the first leg, it was a close game in truth. Barcelona dominated the ball from start to finish, but it took them until the final minute to make the breakthrough. On that occasion, the Catalan club failed to show their true colours, though it must be said that they played the entirety of the contest in second gear, which is of course is what is going to happen when a top team plays inferior opposition over two legs.

Despite not doing much in the first leg, Ernesto Valverde’s men shouldn’t be judged too harshly. Back on the Camp Nou pitch, the La Liga champions can run riot, as they almost always do when welcoming lower-level opposition into their magnificent home. Barca have won each of their last five home Copa del Rey matches against teams from outside of the top flight, scoring a staggering total of 31 goals. They’ve scored at least five in each of those five matches. Such stats don’t exactly bode well for the visitors.

In contrast, Leonesa have an awful recent record against higher-level sides in this competition. They lost 4-0 against Valladolid last season, while they were beaten 6-1 when they visited the Bernabeu in 2016. Furthermore, some of their recent away matches in the third division don’t exactly suggests that they can compete defensively away against a side of Barca’s quality. Wednesday’s visitors recently shipped three goals and conceded 1.99 expected goals against Celta Viga II. If Barca, who will of course rest their most important players, can impose themselves as they often do when taking on weak opponents at home, then they ought to make light work of both creating chances and scoring goals.

Punters shouldn’t be fooled by Barca’s performance in the first leg. Ernesto Valverde’s side, even a weaker version of it, are expected to expose the chasm in quality between the two sides on Wednesday evening. With Blaugrana averaging 2.81 expected goals for at home in La Liga, the bet that stands out ahead of this fixture against inferior opposition is ‘Barcelona to Score Over 3.5 Goals’, which has yielded a profit in every home Copa dey Rey match against lower-level opponents since 2014.