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Preview: Barcelona visit newly-promoted Real Oviedo

Preview: Barcelona visit newly-promoted Real Oviedo

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Barcelona’s first midweek league match of the season sees them travel to Asturias to take on new boys Real Oviedo.

By Neel Shelat

Barcelona’s first visit to Oviedo in 24 years

Real Oviedo spent close to a quarter of a century outside the Spanish top-flight following their relegation from LaLiga in 2001, quite literally bouncing back from the brink of death before eventually winning the Segunda División promotion play-offs last term.

As a result, this will be the first time Oviedo host FC Barcelona in 24 years. A brace from Patrick Kluivert powered the Blaugrana to a 2-3 win on that occasion, but Oviedo were the winners in each of their previous three home head-to-heads.

Lamine Yamal likely to remain sidelined

Lamine Yamal must be raring to go again a couple of days after finishing second in the Ballon d’Or rankings and winning the Kopa trophy, but he missed the last training session prior to the match and is expected to remain unavailable. Fermín López and Gavi also suffered recent injury blows, while Alejandro Balde and Marc-André ter Stegen are still on the absence list as well.

Ferran Torres on fire

Robert Lewandowski is fit and firing for Barcelona again, but Ferran Torres has been the team’s top goal scorer in the early weeks of the season. The ex-Valencia forward doubled his tally with a brace against Getafe on the weekend, showing great scoring instincts both as a main or second striker.

Torres shooting stats in LaLiga, 2025/26

He also scored 14 goals across all club competitions in the second half of the 2024/25 season following the turn of the year, so he has really stepped up to the mantle in Barcelona’s hour of need.

Given Lewandowski’s age and recent return from injury, the 25-year-old Spaniard may well get another chance to lead the line this week.

Wing attacks the key for Real Oviedo

No team in the world can reasonably hope to completely shut out Barcelona even for 90 minutes, so all of their opponents have to come up with a counterattacking plan before taking them. Based on their work early on in the season, Real Oviedo will likely look to deal their damage down the wings.

Veljko Paunović’s side have focused less than a quarter of their attacks down the centre so far this season. Their main striker, 36-year-old Salomón Rondón, is not the most mobile of players, so he operates as more of a target forward. Out wide, the likes of Haissem Hassan and Ilyas Chaira pose more of a dribbling threat, so they will be tasked with getting the ball up the pitch. Against a somewhat depleted Barcelona back line, they might just find a bit of joy.

Prediction

Regardless of how much they rotate the side, Barcelona will surely be overwhelming favourites in this game. They should manage to come away with a comfortable win and take Real Oviedo’s record to five losses in six matches this season.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from LaLiga with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, physical metrics, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Preview: Barcelona visit newly-promoted Real Oviedo

Barcelona’s first midweek league match of the season sees them travel to Asturias to take on new boys Real Oviedo.

By Neel Shelat

Barcelona’s first visit to Oviedo in 24 years

Real Oviedo spent close to a quarter of a century outside the Spanish top-flight following their relegation from LaLiga in 2001, quite literally bouncing back from the brink of death before eventually winning the Segunda División promotion play-offs last term.

As a result, this will be the first time Oviedo host FC Barcelona in 24 years. A brace from Patrick Kluivert powered the Blaugrana to a 2-3 win on that occasion, but Oviedo were the winners in each of their previous three home head-to-heads.

Lamine Yamal likely to remain sidelined

Lamine Yamal must be raring to go again a couple of days after finishing second in the Ballon d’Or rankings and winning the Kopa trophy, but he missed the last training session prior to the match and is expected to remain unavailable. Fermín López and Gavi also suffered recent injury blows, while Alejandro Balde and Marc-André ter Stegen are still on the absence list as well.

Ferran Torres on fire

Robert Lewandowski is fit and firing for Barcelona again, but Ferran Torres has been the team’s top goal scorer in the early weeks of the season. The ex-Valencia forward doubled his tally with a brace against Getafe on the weekend, showing great scoring instincts both as a main or second striker.

Torres shooting stats in LaLiga, 2025/26

He also scored 14 goals across all club competitions in the second half of the 2024/25 season following the turn of the year, so he has really stepped up to the mantle in Barcelona’s hour of need.

Given Lewandowski’s age and recent return from injury, the 25-year-old Spaniard may well get another chance to lead the line this week.

Wing attacks the key for Real Oviedo

No team in the world can reasonably hope to completely shut out Barcelona even for 90 minutes, so all of their opponents have to come up with a counterattacking plan before taking them. Based on their work early on in the season, Real Oviedo will likely look to deal their damage down the wings.

Veljko Paunović’s side have focused less than a quarter of their attacks down the centre so far this season. Their main striker, 36-year-old Salomón Rondón, is not the most mobile of players, so he operates as more of a target forward. Out wide, the likes of Haissem Hassan and Ilyas Chaira pose more of a dribbling threat, so they will be tasked with getting the ball up the pitch. Against a somewhat depleted Barcelona back line, they might just find a bit of joy.

Prediction

Regardless of how much they rotate the side, Barcelona will surely be overwhelming favourites in this game. They should manage to come away with a comfortable win and take Real Oviedo’s record to five losses in six matches this season.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

You can follow every game from LaLiga with FotMob this season – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, physical metrics, and player ratings. Download the free app here.