Overview
Under the leadership of new coach Hansi Flick, Barcelona is in relatively impressive form. The Catalan giants have won all 9 points after the first 3 rounds and are comfortably leading La Liga. However, these are all narrow and not completely convincing victories for Blaugrana.
Barcelona's highly-anticipated new signing Dani Olmo shined with an 82nd-minute goal on his debut against Rayo Vallecano, helping the Blaugrana to a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
With three consecutive wins, Flick's team will enter round 4 with high confidence. They will return home to welcome Real Valladolid. Any result other than a win for Barcelona will be a surprise in this match.
On the other side of the front line, the away team has only played 2 rounds in La Liga, in which they won 1-0 against Espanyol, then lost 0-3 at home to Real Madrid. With unstable form, coach Paulo Pezzolano's team will have a hard time getting points against Barcelona.
Head to head record
Barcelona have only suffered three defeats against Valladolid in 23 matches since March 2002. The Catalan team has won 17 and drawn three.
Barcelona have never lost to Valladolid at home, winning nine and drawing two. The biggest of these was a 6-0 win in November 2008.
Barcelona have won four of their last five home games. Valladolid, on the other hand, have only won three of their last 10 away games in all competitions.
Human resources situation
Flick still has many concerns about personnel despite Barcelona's good form. Players such as Garcia, Christensen, Ansu Fati, Araujo, De Jong and Gavi are still having various health problems.
Barcelona will likely host Valladolid with the same squad that has won the last three matches.
On the other side of the front line, Valladolid almost had the strongest force in the away match against Barcelona.
The match between Barcelona and Real Valladolid takes place at 22:00 on August 31 (Vietnam time).
