Mark O’Haire’s European Football Tips – Barcelona v Sporting Gijon

Luis Suarez scored four goals and contributed three assists as Barcelona’s stuttering La Liga title charge sparked back to life with an 8-0 thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday night.

Barcelona v Sporting Gijon, Saturday 23rd April 2016, 19.30, Sky Sports 1
Three successive defeats had put the breaks on Barcelona’s title hopes but Suarez made sure the losing run would not continue when he gave Barca a two-goal cushion at the break.

The Catalans stepped on the gas in the second-half to completely dismantle Deportivo and put an end to their worst run of La Liga results since 2013 despite influential defender Gerard Pique’s suspension.

The table-toppers cemented their position and will be looking to build on their return to winning ways when lowly Sporting Gijon arrive on Saturday night. Following such a commanding performance, Luis Enrique’s star-studded squad will be expected to slice and dice struggling Sporting.

Recent Record
The Asturians picked up an invaluable 2-1 victory over Sevilla but remain right in relegation mire, and having lost eight of their previous nine trips to top-half teams this term, shipping 18 goals, Abelardo’s men face a mighty tough assignment.

Since Luis Enrique pitched up at Barcelona, the Catalans have W16-D2-L0 when welcoming bottom-half teams to the Camp Nou.

Those 18 fixtures have produced an average goal supremacy of 3.55 goals-per-game with the Blaugrana scoring an average of 4.05 goals in each fixture.

Bets, Bets, Bets
Sporting have fired blanks on nine occasions on their travels already this term, are enjoying a divisional-low 26% of the total shots-on-target when playing away and were smashed 5-1 when visiting Real Madrid earlier this season.

Therefore, I’ll take two stabs at the correct score market with Barcelona to win 5-0 (7/1) and 5-1 (12/1) making most appeal at flattering prices.

Recommended Bets:
Barcelona to win 5-0 (13/2)
Barcelona to win 5-1 (12/1)