Barcelona suffered one the upsets of the La Liga season so far when they fell to newly-promoted Alaves at the CampNou last weekend. Lionel Messi and co. will hope to avoid the ignominy of a second straight defeat to a new top-flight side when they face Leganes on Saturday.
Two wins out of two turned into two wins and a loss when Alaves caused a massive upset. While Luis Enrique's decision to keep the likes of Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta on the bench played a major part in Barcelona's loss, there is little doubt that, despite those changes, the defending champions should have still ended up on the winning side.
However, all Barcelona can now do is move on and get back to winning ways in the league, and hope Real Madrid, who have won three out of three, slip up in their match.
Questions, and plenty of them, were raised over Barcelona's match time for this Leganes encounter, with the kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. local time (4.30 p.m. IST), which is unusual in the La Liga. However, Luis Enrique, the manager, was pretty emphatic in his reply to those questions, insisting it does not matter when Barcelona play, all that really matters is the result.
"We don't look for excuses, we look for results," Enrique said. "We have to adapt [to the schedule]. It's going to be the same for both teams.
"I'll tell you around three o'clock whether I like playing at one o'clock. The time isn't strange. Strange would be if we had to play at one o'clock and Leganes had to play at three o'clock."
The only thing Barcelona really should be concentrating on is getting the three points against Leganes. They will have to do that without Sergio Busquets in the lineup, though, with Enrique sticking to his rotation policy, with the midfielder joined by Lucas Digne, Aleix Vidal and Jordi Masip in getting a breather.
"We have seven games in 23 days and the objective is to win them all," Enrique added. "From that perspective, we do what we can do to adapt and remain effective in terms of results and taking care of players.
"Barcelona are the same, they are 11 guys wearing the same shirt. No team J, H or Z.
"Every player is aware that with a fixture list of over 60 games in a season it's practically impossible for a player to play 90 minutes in every game."
While the defeat to Alaves would have been hard to swallow, Barcelona looked like their normal self in midweek, when they fired seven goals past Celtic in the UEFA Champions League, with Messi grabbing a hat-trick. Iniesta, Suarez and Neymar were also on the scoresheet for that game, which is not a great sign if you are in the Leganes camp.
Where to Watch Live
Leganes vs Barcelona is scheduled for a 1 p.m. local time (4.30 p.m. IST, 12 p.m. BST, 7 a.m. ET) start. Live TV and streaming information is below.
India TV: Sony Six and Sony Six HD. Live Streaming: Sonyliv.
Spain: TV: Movistar, and Bein Sports. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
UK: TV: Sky Sports 5. Live Streaming: Sky Go.
USA, Australia, Canada, France, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand: TV: Bein Sports. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
