Getafe vs Barca preview: Valverde aims to complete first away win this season

Barcelona will be attempting to make it back-to-back wins for the first time this season when they travel to Getafe in La Liga on Saturday afternoon.

The Spanish champions beat Villarreal on Tuesday night to move into fifth position in the table, while Getafe currently sit 10th with seven points to show from their first six matches of the 2019-20 campaign.

Team News

Getafe will once again be without the services of injured trio Amath Ndiaye, Filip Manojlovic and Vitorino Antunes, but the capital side did not suffer any fresh setbacks in the clash with Valencia.

Angel has come off the bench to score in Getafe's last two league matches, while he also netted the winner against Trabzonspor in the Europa League.

Jorge Molina and Jaime Mata again started as the front two against Valencia, though, and that could well be the case this weekend.

Marc Cucurella is on loan with Getafe from Barca, but there is no clause making the 21-year-old ineligible this weekend, and therefore the tricky winger is expected to feature for the home side.

As for Barca, Ousmane Dembele made his recovery from a hamstring problem as a half-time substitute in Tuesday's narrow win over Villarreal – replacing Messi, who as mentioned, is unlikely to feature this weekend.

As a result, the France international could be in line to join Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann in the final third of the field, while Frenkie de Jong is also expected to return to the middle of the park.

Arthur's goal against the Yellow Submarine could be enough to see the Brazil international keep his spot in the middle of the park.

Elsewhere, Samuel Umtiti and Jordi Alba are still on the sidelines with foot and hamstring injuries respectively. As a result, Junior Firpo is once again expected to line up at left-back after a solid performance against Villarreal.

Head To Head

Barca won both La Liga matches between the two teams last season – following a 2-1 victory away from home with a 2-0 success at Camp Nou.

The Catalan giants have actually been victorious in each of their last three visits to Getafe in the league, with their last dropped points occurring in December 2014.

As mentioned above, it has been a fixture dominated by Barca, with Getafe failing to record a victory since November 2011 - Juan Valera scoring the only goal of that particular match against a side that included the likes of Carlos Puyol, Xavi and David Villa.

Predicted lineups

Prediction: 

Getafe 1-2 Barcelona