Barcelona hosts the Turkish Galatasaray on Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16, seeking to maintain its firmness in the continental tournament, in which Betis and Sevilla are also seeking the quarterfinals.
The Barça team will be encouraged by the good image shown by the elimination of Napoli in the play-off for access to the round of 16 and the upward momentum in LaLiga.
“The feeling is very good. There are four wins in a row. It’s a sign that the job is done well and that the players believe in what we say,” said Barça coach Xavi Hernández after beating Elche 2-1 last weekend in League.
A series of victories that includes the 4-2 endorsement of Napoli at home, which allowed Barça to get into the round of 16 of the Europa League, a trophy they have yet to win.
Against Galatasaray, Barça hopes to show again the good performance of the last matches.
In the center of the field, the veteran Sergio Busquets will probably once again be the reference, accompanied by the young Pedro González ‘Pedri’, who after returning from injury is once again an essential part of the Barça team.
Aubameyang and his goals
Ahead, the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has returned the edge to the Barça attack and has already accumulated five goals in six games with Barça in the League and Europa League.
After a difficult first third of the season, Barça seems to have regained a regularity that they hope to maintain against a Galatasaray that is not at its best moment.
The Turkish team has lost six and drawn two of its last ten games and is aiming for the middle of the table in its domestic championship, far from the European positions.
Also on Thursday, Sevilla hosts English West Ham, a rival that led Sevilla’s sports director, Ramón Rodríguez ‘Monchi’, to state that the Andalusian club did not come out “very lucky” in the draw.
The Andalusian team will face the duel weighed down by injuries and after their stumble against Alavés in the League (0-0), which took them a little further away from the leader, Real Madrid.
Coach Julen Lopetegui awaits the English club with his eyes fixed on the infirmary, where he has important pieces such as the Argentines Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez or Gonzalo Montiel, the Brazilian Diego Carlos or the French striker Anthony Martial, among others.
“It’s time to recover those we can, those who aren’t here is difficult because of the injuries they have so we can have no one else on Thursday,” said Lopetegui pessimistically, after the match against Alavés.
West Ham are also keeping an eye on winger Jarrod Bowen, who was injured in the weekend loss to Liverpool.
Betis opens the day
Betis will open the Spanish participation in these round of 16 on Wednesday against the German Eintracht Frankfurt at the Benito Villamarín.
Manuel Pellegrini’s team will seek to relaunch themselves against the German team, after chaining four consecutive games without winning, the last one a 3-1 defeat against Atlético de Madrid.
“We know that tomorrow we have to play a very good game,” Pellegrini, whose team managed to qualify for the Copa del Rey final last week, said on Tuesday.
The Spanish team receives an Eintracht also with an offensive vocation, but that is not going through its best moment either.
The Franco-Portuguese duel Porto-Lyon will be the other game that will open the Europa League on Wednesday, in which the French team will try to maintain its good European run.
The team that is already guaranteed a pass is Germany’s RB Leipzig after UEFA excluded rival Spartak Moscow in response to the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine.
