Barcelona – Levante: Sunday 1pm EST

By: Isaiah | February 22nd, 2008

The fortune teller in me is saying the end of this weekend will be just like it began: 5 points back of Real Madrid, but a few inches closer in terms of goal differential. Not that that matters, as we learned last year. RM plays Getafe at home while we play Levante at the Camp Nou. All that means is we can hope Getafe earns a point from that game and that we show the same passion and ability we did against Celtic on Wednesday.

It’s never so simple as showing up and getting a 3-point door prize, but Levante is the worst team in the league by about a nautical mile (in my rough calculations that’s 8.4 radar miles…hmm…my calculator is off, I think). Barcelona should take home the bacon/cake/points with relative ease, though, if statistics are anything to go by. And you know I go by them.

Barcelona’s home record is 11W-0D-1L while Levante’s away record is 1W-1D-9L. Barcelona has scored a total of 44 goals (28 at home); Levante 19 (5 away). Barcelona has allowed a league low of 16 (5 at home); Levante has allowed 42 (21 away). All signs are pointing towards an utter ass-whooping, but Barcelona will need to show up, show some steel, and really put it to Levante. I think that returning a scoreline of 3-0 or 4-0 would do a world of good before the Valencia Copa del Rey match on Wednesday, I think.

The lineup hasn’t been officially announced, but there are already some missing pieces. Marquez is definitively out thanks to a foot hematoma (which pretty much just means bigass bruise) he picked up against Celtic. Even if he’s capable of playing against Levante, with Valencia coming up, there’s no reason to push him. It’s a lucky break for Barca that we don’t have a top-tier opponent, but we do still have to win. Drawing or losing are both not options right now in the league. It’s do or die, really, and I think that Barcelona will do. Rijkaard might rest some players for the Valencia match (especially with @Atletico coming up the next weekend), but that might be a mistake if the team goes out flat. I imagine, however, that the subs will try to impress either Rijkaard or the scouts who are coming to see them for future contract negotiations.

What I envision is the inclusion of Sylvinho for Abidal, Xavi for Deco, Gio for Ronaldinho, and Bojan for Messi. I don’t know if that radical a change would happen, but I’m fairly convinced that Henry should not start against Valencia, so why not use him against Levante where he can do real damage? With Zambrotta possibly returning (he has been training), Puyol could slide into the middle or perhaps be replaced by Thuram (just to give SuperCaptain a little bit of a breather). Edmilson could conceivably make the start instead of Toure, just to rest the Ivorian, but I see no real need to get that crazy.

As for Levante, while FCB’s official website makes mention of their recent run of form (in the last for games they’ve gone 2-1-1 with 1 away victory), Sport and El Pais are reporting that the squad didn’t train on Friday as a form of protest against the lack of a resignation from Pedro Villarroel, the head of the Levante Cultural and Sporting Foundation (or some such). I don’t know diddly about who Pedro Villarroel is or what he does, but I do know that Levante has previously gone unpaid during this season and that might have something to do with it. Whether this affects their performance on the field remains to be seen, but running out onto the Camp Nou is a far cry from any field they’ve played on during the current spell of only occasionally losing (W@Murcia, D Racing, L@Bilbao, W Osasuna) and doing so without proper training might not be the best way to handle the situation. But to each his own, eh?

The player to look out for is Riga Mustapha, Levante’s leading scorer. He’s got 5 goals so far this year, which isn’t much compared to what is being put on display elsewhere in the league (Luis Fabiano is the current pichichi front-runner with 16), but it’s enough to take notice and consider the possibilities of marking the guy, right? I’ve only seen Levante play once this year and that was the first time Barcelona played them, a game that the real blaugrana won while wearing their blue away jerseys 1-4; remember, that’s the game Henry got a hat trick in and Messi put away the fourth before Levante pulled one back through Emilio Viqueira. Incidentally, Viqueira is on loan to Xerez (my favorite Segunda club, thanks to FIFA 2007).

So, here’s the official prediction: 3-0 Barcelona. I just don’t see Levante having the firepower to overcome a Barcelona side that hasn’t look as good as it did last game for almost a year. It’s just bad luck for Levante, really, that Barcelona is back to being almost entirely healthy. After conceding 2 goals against Celtic, I think the back line will be fired up to put a boot in and crush all attacking players like the horrible insects they are. So that was a bit harsh, but whatever, Puyol, Milito, Thuram, Abidal, Zambrotta, Toure…those are all names that would put fear into my heart if I were ~~a worthless piece of scum~~ an opponent. Big Manly Men they be.