Girona vs Barcelona, La Liga: Team News, Match Preview

Girona FC (5th, 7pts) vs FC Barcelona (1st, 12pts)*

*Standings at the time of writing

Competition/Round: 2024-25 La Liga, Matchday 5

Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Ronald Araujo, Gavi, Ansu Fati, Andreas Christensen, Fermín López, Frenkie de Jong, Marc Bernal (out)

Girona Outs & Doubts: Oriol Romeu (out) Jastin García, Ricard Artero, Yangel Herrera (doubt)

Date/Time: Sunday, September 15, 2024, 4.15pm CET (Barcelona), 3.15pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 7.45pm IST (India)

Venue: Estadio de Montilivi, Girona, Catalonia, Spain

Referee: Alejandro Muñiz Ruiz

VAR: Valentín Pizarro Gómez

How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others

How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), GXR World (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others

Following the first international break of the season, the best team in Spain returns to action looking to remain top of the table and maintain their perfect record to begin the new La Liga season as Barcelona make the short trip to the Montilivi Stadium for a huge local derby against Girona on Sunday afternoon in beautiful Catalonia.

Barça come into this one after a spectacular first month under Hansi Flick, with three convincing 2-1 wins followed by a 7-0 destruction of Valladolid that is still fresh in the memory of every Barça fan. It was an astonishing way to finish a very impressive opening four weeks for the team and its coach, and it creates a ton of excitement for what’s next.

And what’s next is a brutal schedule with seven games in 21 days and the start of a new Champions League season and new Champions League format, with a trip to Monaco on Thursday next up for the Blaugrana as they kick off a fresh European journey. But before that is a monster derby, and one that Barça certainly want to win even more than usual.

Girona’s incredible 2023-24 season had two huge highlights: a pair of dominant and wildly entertaining 4-2 wins over Barça in which Xavi Hernández was badly outcoached by Míchel and the Blaugrana were outplayed in every way by a smarter, fitter, more intense Girona side.

Barça haven’t beaten Girona since January of last year, and are undoubtedly looking for revenge for last season’s embarrassment. They seriously looked second-best in every single department in their two meetings with Girona, and they’ll try to make it right on Sunday with a tactical system that is a much better fit for their opponent’s style and a coach in Flick who is bringing the best out of virtually every single player on the team to begin the season.

The two-week international break has always been Barça’s Achilles heel in the past: the lack of continuity in training tended to hurt the Blaugrana’s style of complicated passing patterns and highly rehearsed movements, but they are more offensively unpredictable by choice under Flick and might not be as vulnerable to a lack of repetitions this time.

This will be the first true test of Hansi’s Barça this season, in the form of a Girona team that knows it can beat their big neighbours at their own game. Will the change of manager finally help Barça crack the Girona code? We’ll find out.

Let’s dance.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS

Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Balde; Casadó, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski

Girona (4-3-3): Gazzaniga; Arnau, López, Blind, Miguel; Herrera, Solis, Martín; Tsigankov, Ruiz, Gil

PREDICTION

Barça and Girona don’t know how to not play crazy, fun games, and I expect them to give us another show on Sunday with the good guys finally coming out on top: 3-2 Barça.