FC Barcelona's glorious start to 2026/27 has taken a hit in recent days with their first defeat of the season, in the Champions League away to Paris Saint-Germain, followed by the first setback of what had until then been a perfect Liga campaign. 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid hurt, but the Catalans are still top of the league, two points ahead of Atlético and three clear of Real.

Halloween will hopeful bring no further horrors as they take on Alavés in a 9pm CET kick-off at Spotify Camp Nou.

Alavés starting strong

However, it won't be easy. The team from Vitoria in the Basque Country started the weekend in seventh place. They started the season in spectacular fashion, with three wins and a draw from their first four outings, but home defeat to Valencia in game five sparked a slump from which they have yet to recover, with just two draws to show from their last six matches.

Head to head

Barça lost 1-0 to Alavés at Mendizorrotza last May, Ibrahim Diabate netting the only goal, but we shouldn't read too much into that result as they had already been crowned champions by that point, taking much of the urgency out of the fixture. Indeed, before that, Barça were on a run of 16 consecutive games without defeat to the Basques.

In the home fixture, Barça did what they have been doing so much of late, coming from behind to win 3-1 thanks to a brace from Olmo and goal from Lamine Yamal.

It's been ten years since Mauricio Pellegrino led Alavés to their last win away to Barça, while their current manager, Quique Sánchez Flores, has taken his teams to Barcelona seven times without a single win, failing to score in the last four trips.

Team news

FC Barcelona are suffering from an injury pile-up, especially in defence, and go into this games without any of Jules Kounde, Xavi Espart, Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen or Roony Bardghji.

The player shortage at the back may mean an opportunity for a younger player to shine. Speaking to the press ahead of the game, coach Hansi Flick said: "Brian Fariñas could be an option at full-back. He's very intelligent, he's been training with us since the start of the season and he's doing a fantastic job. The time has come for him to play. He deserves it."

As for the visitors, both Mikel Rodríguez and Facundo Garcés will miss this game with knee issues.