Barcelona prepare for Alaves test

FC Barcelona look to maintain their 11-point lead at the top of the Liga Santander on Sunday when Alaves visit the Camp Nou Stadium.

Neither side has much time to recover from their efforts in the Cup during the week, but while Barca progressed to a semifinal tie against Valencia on Thursday, Alaves suffered the heartbreak of losing a penalty shoot out to Barcelona's future rivals on Wednesday night, reports Xinhua news agency.

Barcelona would do well to remember that the Basque side caused one of the upsets of last season when they won 2-1 in the Camp Nou stadium and although the faces have changed Alaves have recovered their form since the arrival of former Barca defender, Aberlado Fernandez as coach.

Alaves will be without suspended duo Tomas Pina and Rodrigo Ely for the game, while Barca are without the injured Ousmane Dembele.

Meanwhile, Phillipe Coutinho will make his league debut at some point on Sunday after an impressing first appearance in the Cup on Thursday night.

As always Leo Messi will lead the Barca attack and the Argentinean, who is top scorer in the Liga Santander with 19 league goals so far this campaign praised the arrival of Ernesto Valverde as coach at the start of the season.

"It has been very positive, he has made clear from the start what he wants and we have adapted, although it was not difficult."

"We are on the right track," added Messi at a sponsorship event, insisting that his objective was "not to win individual awards, but for the team to win all of the possible titles."

Valverde will have to decide whether to rest Andres Iniesta or players such as Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto for the Cup semi-final and that could see Lucas Digne, Nelson Semedo or Andre Gomes in the starting 11, while Paco Alcacer's recovery from a muscle injury also gives Valverde another option in attack.

--IANS

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