PREVIEW: BARCELONA - DEPORTIVO (LIGA) From deportivo-la-coruna.com
The top match of this weekend in Spain will be the game between Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruña, the Catalans will try to maintain their good image against Matador Puchov and try to gain their first victory in home matches in La Liga; in the other side, Deportivo will try to take again the first place before their game against Monaco for Champions League.
A victory of the Galicians will put the pressure on Valencia, they play on Sunday against Español at Mestalla's stadium. Also on next Saturday Deportivo will have another chance to get the top place on Spanish league when they receive the team coached by Rafa Benitez.
Walter Pandiani will try to continue with his mark of one goal per game, if he scores in this match he will reach the mark of Bebeto of seven consecutive games scoring goals for Depor. Javier Irureta will do only one change to the formation that he has used in this season, Joan Capdevilla will replace Enrique Romero on the left side because his son had a surgery on the eyes this week, Romero was in the hospital with his kid during the week and he didn't take part in two of the week trainings and Jabo prefers to reserve him for the next game.
About the match, the coach Javier Irureta said that "it would be a tough match for both teams but, I have faith and I believe that we could gain a good result if the squad is concentrated" also he said that the key to win the match is to have speed, because "Barcelona plays with the defense in advance position, we must take advantage of this and win the spaces that they leave in the field", in this sense Irureta insist with Albert Luque to do this job.
Barcelona will try to reach their first home victory of the season but, they have the absences of Marquez and Kluivert because of injuries , also Quaresma and Overmars weren’t called by Frank Rijkaard. In this sense the Dutch coach have the doubt of who will be the partner of Puyol in the central of the defense, this place could be occupied by Philip Cocu or Michael Reiziger. Also Rijkaard will use Gabri on the right side and Luis García on the attack with the hope of gaining speed in the actions. Gerard López, Thiago Motta and Luis Enrique will be in midfield to try to secure the ball, finally, the duo Ronaldinho-Saviola will try to score the goals for Barcelona.
POSSIBLE LINE-UPS:
Barcelona: Valdés - Gabri, Puyol, Cocu, Van Bronckhorst - Gerard, Motta, Luis Enrique - Luis García, Ronaldinho and Saviola.
Deportivo:Molina - Manuel Pablo, Andrade, Naybet, Capdevila - Sergio, Mauro Silva - Víctor, Valerón, Luque - Pandiani.
Referee: Teixeira Vitienes ( Cantabrian comitee).
Stadium: Camp Nou
Kickoff: 21:30
VS
the biggest game is Sevilla vs. Betis, anyway hope Barcelona gets thrashed by Depor...