It has been a long international break for Barcelona who are finally set to return to action against a complicated opponent at a ruthless venue.
Two weeks after their last outing, the team welcomed Robert Lewandowski from his back injury but still have some key players out of action including young Lamine Yamal, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres. Barcelona are, thus, far from clear favourites.
While Flick’s men are on top of the league standings, Celta are in 11th place with 17 points after 13 games and have won just five games this term. Notably, however, they are just three points away from a place in the top 6.
Barcelona were very close to completing the perfect window ahead of the international break after having beaten Sevilla, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Espanyol and Crvena Zvezda in five successive games last month.
However, they fell short at the final hurdle as they failed to beat Real Sociedad in the Basque country and thus recorded only their second defeat in La Liga this season.
The repercussions of dropping three points were massive as it helped Real Madrid undo the damage Barcelona inflicted in El Clasico and brought them back to the picture on the standings.
Lamine Yamal travelled with the team to the Basque country two weeks ago but was removed from the squad hours before kickoff after it became apparent that he had discomfort in his ankle.
Municipal de Balaidos is one stadium where Barcelona have struggled in recent years and heading to the Vigo-based venue will thus be an uphill battle for the league leaders.
