FC Barcelona (1st, 76pts) vs RCD Espanyol (10th, 38pts)
Competition/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 31
Barcelona Outs & Doubts
: Raphinha, Andreas Christensen, Marc Bernal (out)Espanyol Outs & Doubts: Javi Puado, Clemens Riedel (out)
Barcelona Form Guide: WWWWL
Espanyol Form Guide: DDLLD
Date/Time: Saturday, April 4, 2026, 6.30pm CET/WAT (Barcelona), 5.30pm GMT (UK & Nigeria), 12.30pm ET, 9.30am PT (USA), 10pm IST (India)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández
VAR: Valentín Pizarro Gómez
How to watch on TV: ESPN
Deportes (USA), Premier Sports 2 (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), Premier Sports Player (UK), FanCode (India), DAZN (Spain), others
Following a painful defeat to Atlético Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Barcelona take a quick break from their European exploits to try and take another step towards the La Liga title when they welcome city rivals Espanyol to the Greatest Stadium on Earth on Saturday evening, in what will be the first Barcelona Derby at Camp Nou since December 2022.
Barça come into this one looking for a seventh consecutive victory in the league, which would increase the gap at the top of the table to nine points following Real Madrid’s draw against Girona on Friday. The Blaugrana are also focused on an European comeback at the Metropolitano next Tuesday, but a win on Saturday is vital to take another big step towards the league title.
Hansi Flick has hinted at some rotation of his squad to save some of his key players for the trip to Madrid, but he also made clear he’s fully focused on getting a win in the derby. And Barça will be huge favorites on paper, especially considering Espanyol’s horrible run.
The first three and a half months of 2026 have been an absolute nightmare for the Periquitos, who have not won a single game since losing at home to Barça in the first game of the new year. Since Joan Garcia put on a show at Cornellà on January 3, Espanyol have been on a 13-game winless run with eight defeats, a very poor defense (which had been their biggest strength in the first half of the season), and some truly unwatchable football at times.
Espanyol would be in serious trouble if not for a historically great first half of the campaign, but what we’ve seen over the last three months is what we all thought Espanyol would be before the season started. One positive result is all it takes to change the whole mood, however, and a derby win at Camp Nou would be the ultimate mood-changer for Espanyol.
They will hope that Barça are looking too far ahead to Atlético, and a potentially weaker Barça side given the rotations could make it slightly easier for Espanyol to pull off an upset. They are not playing well enough at all as of late to have any realistic hope, so they will likely be extra physical, extra annoying, and extra Espanyol-y. And that doesn’t bode well for anyone expecting a fun game.
Barça must ignore all the things Espanyol will do to try and turn this into a non-football match, and the Catalans must focus on playing their stuff, creating and finishing their chances, picking up all three points, and moving on to bigger things.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Joan; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsí, Balde; Casadó, Gavi; Roony, Fermín, Rashford; Ferran
Espanyol (4-2-3-1): Dmitrovic; El Hilali, Calero, Cabrera, Romero; Lozano, Urko; Ngonge, Expósito, Dolan; Roberto
PREDICTION
Espanyol have been horrible for months now, but all of that goes out the window in a derby. This will be tight, Espanyol will be annoying, but I’m still betting on the home team: 3-1 Barça.
