Valencia, Spain – Barcelona faces a potentially tricky La Liga fixture for the second week in a row as the Catalans hit the road again to face Valencia at the Mestalla on Sunday.
The reigning La Liga champions opened the season with an emphatic 7-0 drubbing of Levante before squeaking by at La Rosaleda with a 1-0 defeat of Malaga.
Barcelona even struggled to get going in the Spanish SuperCup as the club only managed to edge Atletico Madrid thanks to Neymar's away goal, but the fact that the club has already secured a piece of silverware could foster a bit of confidence within the team.
It was a first trophy for Barcelona manager Gerardo Martino, which undoubtedly provides a bit of relief after the Argentine joined the club in the shadows of Tito Vilanova and Pep Guardiola. Martino even paid tribute to his predecessor by dedicating the triumph to Vilanova, who relinquished his post as Barcelona manager to focus on his cancer recovery, and the squad that he helped shape.
"The fact Barcelona won the trophy does not change anything, this triumph came about because of what happened last year," Martino said after the match. "In the end I ended up winning it because of an unfortunate turn of events.
"This trophy belongs to the players, to Tito Vilanova and the rest of the coaching staff."
Valencia will be eager to spoil Martino's run of good form, especially since Miroslav Dukic's men are coming off of a disappointing 3-1 loss to Espanyol last weekend.
Real Madrid will have a tough encounter at the Bernabeu on Sunday as the club hosts Athletic Bilbao, which has claimed maximum points through its first two contests of the season.
Atletico Madrid also brings an unblemished record into the third round of the La Liga campaign as the club looks to follow a 5-0 rout of Rayo Vallecano with a victory at Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Elsewhere in the Spanish top flight on Sunday, Espanyol welcomes Real Betis to the Estadi Cornella-El Prat while Malaga and Sevilla battle for their first wins of the season at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
On Saturday, Celta Vigo hosts Granada at the Estadio Municipal de Balaidos, Valladolid seeks its first points of the season when it welcomes Getafe to the Jose Zorrilla and Villarreal makes the journey to El Sadar to take on last- place Osasuna.
Friday's action saw Elche claim a point at Almeria as Richmond Boakye scored deep into stoppage time to help side snatch a 2-2 draw, while Levante topped 10-man Rayo Vallecano, 2-1, with Andreas Ivanschitz scoring the winning goal four minutes into stoppage time.
