Unbeaten since losing to Bayern Munich at the beginning of last month, Barcelona would be looking to put more pressure on the top four when they travel to take on Granada this weekend.

Granada held the Catalan giants to a 1-1 draw in the reverse match back in September,, stretching their unbeaten run against them to two games. Would we see an ample response from Xavi's troops?

Catalans looking to build on a rare run of positive results

Granada pulled down the curtain on 2021 in the best possible way, beating Atletico Madrid two goals to one. Although they failed to make it three wins on the bounce in their first game of the new year, which ended in a 0-0 stalemate with Elche, they head into this game unbeaten in their last six league games. Twelve points from this sublime run have pushed them up to 13th position on the league standings and as such, it is then left to see whether they can match or beat their 9th place finish last term.

A solitary Luuk de Jong strike handed Barcelona a not too convincing but much-needed victory in their first league game of the year against Mallorca. The Catalans were stretched pretty thin heading into this game but still managed to secure all three points, putting them just one point behind Atletico Madrid and two points behind Real Betis who are in 4th and 3rd positions respectively. Xavi's crop followed him up with a Copa Del Rey victory against Linares Deportivo and given that they have their bitter rivals Real Madrid to play in the Spanish Super Cup semifinals come the 12th of January, they would surely have their eyes set on another confidence-boosting victory this weekend.

Granada vs Barcelona Team News

Granada possible starting XI:

Maximiano; Quini, Duarte, Torrente, Neva; Puertas, Milla, Gonalons, Machis; Molina, Suarez

Barcelona possible starting XI:

Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Garcia, Pique, Alba; Puig, Busquets, Nico; Dembele, L de Jong, Jutgla

Granada vs Barcelona Prediction: 1-2

Barcelona heads into his game with yet another long list of key absentees, however, we've seen Xavi and his troops carve out two wins in as many games this year and we're predicting yet another narrow win for them as they look to put more pressure on the top four.