FC Barcelona vs Racing Santander
Competition/Round: 2026-27 La Liga, Matchday 6
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Roony Bardghji, Frenkie de Jong (out)
Racing Outs & Doubts: Simon Eriksson, André Almeida, Andrés Martín (out)
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 9.30pm CET (Barcelona), 8.30pm BST/WAT (UK & Nigeria), 3.30pm ET, 12.30pm PT (USA), 1am IST (India, Thursday)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Referee: José Luis Munuera Montero
VAR: Carlos del Cerro Grande
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Premier Sports 1 (UK),
SuperSport (Nigeria), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), DAZN (Spain), others
Following a hard-fought win away to Levante at the weekend, Barcelona return home for another La Liga game as the leaders welcome newly-promoted Racing Santander to the Greatest Stadium on Earth on Wednesday night.
The Catalans seek to stay perfect to start the season and make it six wins out of six in the league, but they will also be looking to play and manage the game better than they did on Sunday. The start to each half was strong but Barça slowly lost control, and made it harder than necessary on themselves against Levante in a game they should have won easily.
Hansi Flick’s side have done a pretty good job of controlling games so far this season but slipped into old bad habits from the last two years, so they need to focus on not only starting strong and score goals early but also staying calm and avoiding drama late in games.
Wednesday’s opponents have made a good start to life back in La Liga and have been one of the most entertaining teams in the league so far. Racing like to play and don’t resort to the usual time-wasting tactics from so many other Spanish teams, but they’ve also been vulnerable at the back.
Racing have conceded nine goals already and will absolutely be made to pay against a high-flying Barça offense if they remain as bold and attack-minded as they’ve been in the first few games, so they could adopt a slightly more cautious approach in their visit to Camp Nou.
Barça will be favorites but Racing have been very solid to start the season and deserve full respect. The Catalans need to start strong, take their chances early, and manage the game well. If they do it, they’ll stay perfect.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan; Eric, Christensen, Martín, Espart; Gavi, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Adeyemi; Gordon
Racing (4-2-3-1): Agirrezabala; Mantilla, Ramón, Belocian, Salinas; Martín, Prati; García, Canales, Vicente; Zabiri
PREDICTION
Racing have been very entertaining and attack-minded to start the season but also bad at the back, and that’s not a good formula against a Barça team flying high and scoring for fun: 3-1 to the home team.
