Barcelona vs Espanyol, LaLiga preview: Prediction, start time, team news, TV, live stream, h2h, odds

Barcelona can put the pressure back on Real Madrid as the current LaLiga champions host local rivals Espanyol on Wednesday night.

Barca sit four points behind LaLiga leaders Real Madrid with four games left, and Real's superior head-to-head record means Los Blancos would have to drop five points for Barca to stand any chance of winning the title.

Real's next game comes against Alaves on Friday, so Barca can temporarily close the gap on Zinedine Zidane's men with a Derbi Barceloni victory over Espanyol at Camp Nou.

Barca have been left incensed by what they feel are controversial VAR decisions going in Real's favour since the restart, but Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann put those off-field issues to one side to sparkle in a 4-1 win at Villarreal last time out.

Date, venue and kick-off time

Barcelona vs Espanyol will be held at Camp Nou on Wednesday, 8 June with a kick-off time of 9pm BST.

Prediction: Barcelona 4-0 Espanyol

Espanyol are rock-bottom of the table and Barca should make light work of their local opponents here.

How to watch

LaLiga will be available on Premier Sports with LaLigaTV for the rest of the season. To get access to all the games, customers should visit premiersports.com and register.

With games due to be shown on TV on Channel 435 on Sky, fans can also live stream the matches online via the Premier Player app.

Pre-match coverage will start at 8:15pm BST.

Team news

Ousmane Dembele, Frenkie de Jong, Samuel Umtiti and Junior Firpo are sidelined due to injury.

Griezmann will likely get another start after an impressive showing in the win at Villarreal.

Barcelona matchday squad: ter Stegen, N. Semedo, Piqué, I. Rakitic, Sergio, Arthur, Suárez, Messi, Neto, Lenglet, Griezmann, Jordi Alba, Braithwaite, S. Roberto, Vidal, Iñaki Peña, Riqui Puig, Collado, Ansu Fati, R. Araujo, Morer, Monchu i J. Cuenca.

Head to head (h2h) history and results

Espanyol held Barca to a 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture back in January, though Barca dominate this fixture historically with 123 wins to Espanyol's 44 in 211 derbies.

Betting odds and tips

• Barcelona win: 2/13

• Espanyol to win: 27/1

• Draw: 9/1

• Over 3.5 goals: 6/5

• Lionel Messi to score first: 9/5

Odds courtesy of Betfair Exchange. Click here to find out more.

We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Evening Standard.