Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The last stop for FC Barcelona before next weekend's momentous clash with Atletico Madrid
This Thursday's game is vital for both teams.
The yellows will be looking to take a giant step towards survival.
Barça will want to maintain their lead at the top of the table before facing their main rivals for the league title.
"It's very important that we stay consistent, keep playing well and get results.
We want to keep our distance from Atletico Madrid who are very strong, and challenging all the time.
We don't want to give them any excuse to get closer and start believing they can catch us."
Barça are edging a little nearer to the league title with every game that passes.
Las Palmas are still fighting hard to avoid being amongst the bottom three clubs at the end of the season.
"They're all finals now. We've got to take each game at a time and do our very best to come away
with three points. We've got to forget the games that are behind us and play with a lot of attitude"
"They're giving me everything they've got and like my father used to say 'if you give your best
you've nothing to be ashamed of'. We could be better, we could be worse, we could make more of our chances but whatever,
the lads are doing their upmost. They're going all out to get it right and that's
what they have to do. They're the type of players I need for this situation"
The Argentinian midfielder Gaby Peñalba, one of Paco Jemez's key players will miss the game due to injury.
Among the players likely to feature are the ex- Barça midfielder Alen Halilovic.
And more importantly, Jonathan Calleri.
Their top goal scorer and the Canarian's main attacking threat.
Las Palmas will need their Argentinian striker to be at his very best if
they are to change their fortunes against the Catalan club.
In their five meetings since the Canarian side were promoted in
the summer of 2015, Barcelona have come out on top every time.
In the earlier clash this season, played behind closed doors at the Camp Nou, the Catalans won 3-0.
Last year they triumphed by four goals to one in Gran Canaria, a game which featured a Neymar hat trick
and a fine strike from Luis Suarez, who has scored 6 goals in the five recent encounters between the teams.
There's everything to play for both at the top and bottom of the table.
It's the big game of the mid-week round of matches in LaLiga Santander.
No comments:
Post a Comment