Barca vs Betis Preview

FC Barcelona would be hoping to carry on their last two good performance against Real betis also. After a shaky start Guardiola's boys looks like have put the train back on track. Henry who missed the 6-1 drubbing of Gijon will be back in place of Pedro. The squad announced by Guardiola for Betis encounter is Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Eto'o, Abidal, Touré Yaya, Cáceres, Bojan, Keita, Messi, Henry and Sergio Busquets. Pedro should consider himself unlucky to miss out on the squad. There could be some changes especially considering the busy week. FC Barcelona will be playing Espanyol on saturday and would be heading for their Champions League encounter on Wednesday. How Guardiola is going to handle Messi would be the most interesteing part of this game. Another question everybody is asking is whether Busquests get another start?

FC Barcelona is expected to retain the squad which played against Gijon. Valdes is expected to be guarded with a four man defense consisting of Puyol, Marquez, Abidal and Alves. Midfield would be made up of Keita, Busquests and Xavi. Up front Iniesta will join Eto and Messi like last match. It is difficult to expect Henry to walk into the side for this match. If that happens then Busquests can be expected to start from substitute bench. Guardiola rightly was in a cautious mood during the pre-match press conference. He warned his players and fans not to expect a repeat of Gijon performance. He has singled out Iniesta for praise during the press conference. If Barca is going to have a good night, then it is mandatory that Iniesta has a good night. Betis will be more defensively organised and could be bit hard to crack. So this could be a test of how much Barca has recovered from their initial slump in form.