Defending champions Barcelona kick off their title defence with a trip to Elche, but it’s not a match that should give them sleepless nights, given their head-to-head record against them. Having scored three or more goals so often against them these last few years, it’s worth betting on them doing so once more on Sunday evening.
- Starts: Sunday, August 23, 21:30
- Venue: Estadio Martínez Valero, Elche, Spain
- TV Channel: Premier Sports (UK)
Betting Tip: Barca Should Be Good for at Least Three Goals
As highlighted in our La Liga preview, continuity is the name of the game at Barcelona this season, with the same manager and not that much in terms of transfers: class players Anthony Gordon and Ballon d'Or contender Rodri came in, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres went out, so pretty much ‘even stevens’ in that regard.
And Barca will be delighted that they’re opening their campaign with a match against Elche, albeit away.
- Bet: Back Barcelona to score over 2.5 goals
- Odds: 2.0 (at the time of writing)
Did You Know?
The one thing that stands out is that Barcelona haven’t just beaten Elche in all of their last 10 matches; they’ve scored plenty of goals in the process
Remarkably, in eight of those 10, they scored three goals or more, so it’s not a tough choice to make that they’ll score at least three this time around, too.
Barça played Elche twice last season, winning 3-1 on both occasions. In both matches, the Barça goals came from Ferran Torres, Marcus Rashford and Lamine Yamal.
Fun Fact: When Anthony Gordon makes his debut for Barcelona, he’ll be just the third English player ever to have represented them, after Gary Lineker and Marcus Rashford.
