Barcelona vs. Valencia Preview

One of Barcelona's toughest remaining La Liga assignments arrives on Saturday as Valencia visit Camp Nou.

Barca passed their Paris Saint-Germain test with flying colours in midweek and now will hope to keep Real Madrid at bay at the top of the Spanish top flight.

Barcelona

The Catalan giants made history in 2009 when they became the first Spanish team ever to win the La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble. History might just repeat itself this season.

Barca are already into May's Copa showdown with Athletic Bilbao, are two points clear at the league summit and made themselves Champions League favourites with their victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

During a set of quarter-finals in which fellow heavyweights Real and Bayern Munich stuttered, Luis Suarez scored twice as the Blaugrana won 3-1 at Parc des Princes to open up a commanding lead ahead of next week's return leg.

The former Liverpool forward made a pedestrian start to his Barca career, scoring five times in his first 18 appearances upon the conclusion of his FIFA suspension, but he has found the net 13 times in his last 15 games.

It is the importance of his goals that is as significant as the number. Suarez scored a double at Manchester City and then twice more in Paris, either side of bagging the match-winner in last month's pivotal El Clasico.

That result gave Barca a four-point cushion which was halved by Real following the 2-2 draw with Sevilla last weekend, in which Luis Enrique's side led through Lionel Messi and Neymar goals before conceding their advantage.

They dusted those cobwebs off in France and will be hoping to extend their unbeaten domestic run to eight matches when fourth-placed Valencia, one of only three top-half teams left on Barca's La Liga fixture list, come to visit.

Recent form: WWWWWD

Recent form (all competitions): WWWWDW

Valencia

Forget Barcelona's seven-match unbeaten run in La Liga, or Atletico Madrid's eight games without defeat. Valencia are the form team in Spain, having won seven and drawn three of their last 10 outings.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side have managed to catch up with Atletico and are now applying pressure on the defending champions for third spot, just one point behind with seven games of the season left.

However, Sevilla too remain in the running for a top-four finish and so Los Che must strive to maintain their form until the season's end in order to ensure that a much-improved campaign gets its just rewards.

Monday's 3-0 victory over Levante was ideal preparation ahead of their trip to Catalonia. Paco Alcacer, Sofiane Feghouli and Man City loanee Alvaro Negredo were all on the scoresheet during a comfortable night's work.

It was a 13th home triumph of the season for Valencia - putting them level with all of Spain's other big boys. However, their six away wins is a poorer return than their rivals and they have only beaten one top-half team on the road this term.

Recent form: DWWDDW

Team News

Barca have doubts over the fitness of Andres Iniesta after he was stretchered off against PSG with a sore back. Xavi was his replacement off the bench and could feature against Valencia for the last time ahead of a likely summer exit.

Dani Alves is back from a European suspension and should usurp Martin Montoya at right-back despite huge uncertainty over his own future. Claudio Bravo will regain the gloves from Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Neymar, Messi and Suarez should all start.

The return of Nicholas Otamendi from a ban gives Valencia a huge boost ahead of their clash with the world's most formidable attack, who will provide the reported Manchester United target with a monumental test of his world-class credentials.

The visitors do remain without a couple of their key players, though, with striker Pablo Piatti and highly-rated young left-back Jose Luis Gaya both sidelined by hamstring strains and January signing Enzo Perez still out.

Negredo, who has a poor career record against Barcelona, having scored just once in seven games against them while at Sevilla, may have to settle for the bench as Perez's former Benfica teammate Rodrigo partners Paco Alcacer up front.

Barcelona possible starting lineup:

Bravo; Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Xavi, Rakitic; Neymar, Suarez, Messi

Valencia possible starting lineup:

Diego Alves; Cancelo, Mustafi, Otamendi, Vezo; Feghouli, Parejo, Fuego, Andre Gomes; Alcacer, Rodrigo

Head To Head

Enrique's men needed a stoppage-time Sergio Busquets winner at the Mestalla to prevail 1-0 in November's reverse fixture.

Valencia were victorious on their last trip to Camp Nou as Alcacer bagged the decisive strike of a five-goal thriller last season.

However, that was Los Che's first win at Barcelona in 11 attempts and the Catalonians boasted a 28-6 aggregate record during that run.