Espanyol and Barcelona will lock horns in the La Liga matchday 24 at RCDE Stadium on Sunday. The kick-off is at 22:00 CEST.

Preview

Apparently, the second Barcelonian Derby of the 2021/22 Spanish top flight campaign couldn't come at a worse time for Espanyol who haven't won a single of their four league matches since the turn of the year, including a 2-1 loss at the hands of Athletic Bilbao on Monday. What's more, Vicente Moreno's men are on a five-game winless streak across all competitions right now, meaning that the Parakeets have slipped down to 13th in the table with 27 points taken from 23 matches.

Barca, in turn, continue their rise under the reign of Xavi Hernandez and are coming into this encounter on the back of a 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid last weekend. Even if it would be all but impossible for the Catalans to enter the title race this season as they are already 15 points adrift of leaders Real Madrid, the Atletico victory means that the Blaugrana are now fourth in the La Liga standings with 38 points.

Team news

While Fernando Calero is out for the hosts with an injury, Oscar Gil is suspended for this one. Barca, meanwhile, will be without Samuel Umtiti, Alejandro Balde, Sergi Roberto and Ansu Fati through respective injury woes while Dani Alves is unavailable after his sending-off against Atletico last time out.

Prediction

In fact, it was Xavi's first game in charge of the club when Barca defeated their city rivals 1-0 courtesy of Memphis Depay's goal in the reverse fixture in November. Even though the Catalans have only won six out 15 games in all competitions since then, the level of their performances have improved massively up to this date. Therefore, we do expect the Blaugrana to make it two out of two against Espanyol this term on Sunday, given the latter side's awful run of results lately.

Tip

Barcelona to win at 1.758 with 1XBET.