FC Barcelona could Make Life miserable for Deportivo
After the exceptional night at Bernabeu, FC Barcelona will be hosting Real Club Deportivo La Coruna at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. The euphoria surrounding the victory at Bernebeu has not yet settled but we can expect the players not to get carried away by that win. One of the major achievement of Guardiola is the fact that he make sure that his team remains focused regardless of the surrounding hype. The last time these two teams met was at the Riazor where Barca emerged victorious - Deportivo - 1, Barca - 3. Deportivo were lying at the fifth position at that time, but they looks like been in a downhill path after that loss. Deportivo arrives at Camp Nou with a six match winless streak, losing four in a row prior to last week. FC Barcelona on the other hand is brimming with confidence after dispatcing both Arsenal and Real Madrid in pretty dominant fashion. Ibrahimovic, who missed Barca's last two match against Arsenal and Real Madrid is expected to miss this one too. He and Abidal trained seperately yesterday.
Guardiola is expected to field his best eleven as it is essential to maximize the advantage from the Real Madrid win. Real Madrid is playing only on Thursday and a six point gap could seriously increase the presure on their players. Guardiola is expected to line-up his usual defense of Maaxwell, Pique, Puyol and Alves. Toure could fill in the defensive midfielder role. With the absence of Ibra we most probably will see the 4-1-2-3 fromation employed against Arsenal. That means we could see Xavi and Iniesta in action behind the trio of Bojan, Messi and Pedro. Messi most probably will play in the centre role but a bit behind Bojan and Pedro on the flanks. It could be very difficult for Deportivo to come to Camp Nou and expect a good result, especially their recent performance were way below par. This could be an easy outing for Guardiola and his boys. I expect FC Barcelona to win this one comfortably with a scoreline of 5-0.