Barcelona vs Real Valladolid

Camp Nou is the venue as Barcelona and Real Valladolid go head-to-head in their first La Liga encounter since April 2021.

Marquee summer addition Robert Lewandowski was on the scoresheet inside 46 seconds in a 4-1 romping of Real Sociedad last weekend, scoring Barcelona’s fastest league goal since 2009. The Polish striker added another one beyond halftime to become the oldest Barcelona player to net a double in a single La Liga match in the 21st century. After putting a nerve-shredding scoreless home draw with Rayo Vallecano behind them, the ‘Blaugrana’ are aiming to maintain an eye-catching run of 14 wins from their last 15 La Liga meetings with Valladolid (L1). The signs are positive, as the Catalan heavyweights have won their eight previous home league games against this opposition, bagging an average of 3.4 goals per fixture in the sequence. That’s promising, considering Xavi’s me are staring down the barrel of a three-match scoreless streak in home La Liga outings for the first time since 1980.

On the other hand, Real Valladolid’s returning La Liga campaign was off to a sluggish start as they fell to a horrendous 3-0 home defeat to Villarreal on the opening weekend before being pegged back by Sevilla in a 1-1 away draw last time out. Valladolid’s poor start to the season has taken their winless run in La Liga to 11 away matches (D4, L7), their worst such streak in Spain’s top flight since September 2018. Still waiting for their first La Liga victory on the road since January 2021, ‘Los Pucelanos can draw confidence from conceding under 1.5 goals in nine of those 11 winless fixtures. Though they could prove a thorn in Barcelona’s side, a first H2H win since March 2014 seems highly unlikely.