Life under Hansi Flick continues to go from strength to strength for Barcelona after an emphatic 5-0 victory over BSC Young Boys in midweek UEFA Champions League action made it seven wins from their opening ten competitive outings to start their 2024-25 season.
By Nathan Evans
That latest result also did a lot to limit the damage from a 4-2 defeat to Osasuna the weekend prior, a loss that ended Barca’s winning start in the league on matchday seven, though they still sit top of the pile and three points ahead of fierce rivals Real Madrid (Madrid can close that gap when they play Saturday evening).
The German manager will be absolutely desperate to go again in the league as a result of that setback and as they travel to face Alavés in the Basque Country, history will be on their side.
There’s plenty of reasons to suggest that anyway, not least the fact that Barca are unbeaten across their last seven league visits to the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. With six of those coming as wins, the mood will be buoyant in the away changing room and that’s before you mention the fact that the Catalan giants have additionally lost just two of their last 21 league clashes with Alavés home and away.
What’s crucial to mention is that much of Barcelona’s success so far this campaign has been due to their rich vein of goalscoring, netting 25 times across their seven league fixtures combined, the most of any side across Europe’s top five leagues to this point. That return also represents the club’s best start in terms of goalscoring in LaLiga since 2016/17, a fantastic feat given the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Luis Suárez, and Neymar who formed the basis of that team.
But whatever that team could do, this new Barca side will look to replicate, headlined by 17-year-old Lamine Yamal who seemingly continues his stunning form each matchday. Through eight appearances in LaLiga in 2024/25, he’s returned four goals and five assists and given that opponents Alavés have conceded 12 goals across their first eight games, it’d take a brave person to bet against him adding to that tally even more here.
In fairness, maybe the Basque hosts will give their opposition a much tougher go of it this time around, owing to their return of ten points to date which is representative of their best Spanish top-flight start to a campaign for a number of years. But as they’ve lost three of their last four league outings, Luis García’s outfit could find it very tough to cause any kind of upset this weekend.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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