Sudan Events – Agencies<\/b><\/p>\n
Barcelona, under the leadership of coach Hansi Flick, has made a flying start to the current season with four consecutive victories in La Liga, exciting the fans. Next Sunday, the team will travel an hour to face its local rival Girona in a Catalan derby, seeking revenge for two defeats last season.
\nGirona finished third last season, the best position in its history, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. However, they started this season with a draw against Real Betis in the opening match, followed by a 0-3 loss to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid.
\nNevertheless, Girona bounced back with convincing wins over Osasuna and Sevilla, once again resembling the entertaining and attacking version of the team that made last season\u2019s La Liga so thrilling.
\nGirona competed with Real Madrid for the title last season, backed by the wealth of its owners from Abu Dhabi, just four years after being promoted to the top flight.
\nGirona also defeated Barcelona twice last season, contributing to Barcelona’s trophyless campaign, which culminated in the controversial sacking of coach Xavi Hernandez. Xavi, a Barcelona legend as a player, left under poor circumstances amid chaos at the club.
\nIn its effort to comply with the strict Financial Fair Play rules in La Liga, Barcelona had to let go of players like Ilkay Gundogan, Cl\u00e9ment Lenglet, and Vitor Roque. They also couldn’t bring back Portuguese duo Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix and Jo\u00e3o Cancelo.
\nThe club made only one significant signing during the transfer window, acquiring Spanish attacking midfielder Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig.
\nWith all the attention on Real Madrid, who added France\u2019s captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 to an already star-studded squad and won both La Liga and the Champions League, Barcelona fans were initially not optimistic when the club announced the hiring of former Bayern Munich and Germany coach Flick, tasked with restoring the team\u2019s domestic and European glory.
\nHowever, Barcelona has started the season with an impressive attacking lineup, led by the energetic striker Robert Lewandowski, La Liga’s top scorer with four goals, along with rising star Lamine Yamal and Olmo, who both shone after helping Spain win the Euro 2024 Championship.
\nBrazilian winger Raphinha is finally making the impact Barcelona had hoped for when they paid \u20ac60 million ($66.16 million) to sign him from Leeds United two years ago.
\nDespite the loss of midfielder Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez due to a leg injury during training with Spain’s U-21 team last week, which will keep him out for around three weeks, Flick has regained all his other players fit after the international break.
\nIn contrast, Real Madrid\u2019s center-back \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o (26), who missed much of last season due to an anterior cruciate ligament tear, is the latest injury casualty. He will leave Brazil\u2019s camp ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay due to a leg injury.
\nMidfielders Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni and Dani Ceballos, along with left-back Ferland Mendy, were injured in the 2-0 win over Real Betis two weeks ago. They join Englishman Jude Bellingham, Frenchman Eduardo Camavinga, and Austrian David Alaba on the injury list.
\nThese injuries present Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti with a selection dilemma ahead of Saturday\u2019s match against Real Sociedad.
\nBarcelona tops the standings with 12 points, four points ahead of Real Madrid, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, and Villarreal, and five points ahead of fifth-placed Girona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudan Events – Agencies Barcelona, under the leadership of coach Hansi Flick, has made a flying start to the current season with four consecutive victories in La Liga, exciting the fans. Next Sunday, the team will travel an hour to face its local rival Girona in a Catalan derby, seeking revenge for two defeats last …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32579,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32578\/revisions\/32579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}