After Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman confirms that his team is facing a challenge in the race for the Spanish Premier League title, he will be tested when hosting Valencia at the "Camp Nou" on Saturday.
Barca, fifth-placed, has suffered from fluctuations in level this season, has already lost 4 times in the league, and is 6 points behind the top three, Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Real Madrid.
Nevertheless, with no single team faring at the top, Barcelona's performance is improving and appearing close to its best levels on Wednesday, when it turned a goal behind into a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad.
The result prompted Koeman to believe Barcelona could meet the challenge of the title race.
"Yes (we can) ... it is about us and there is still a long way to go. We played our best game this season, we played very well when possessing the ball and pressed hard," Koeman said.
The Dutch coach confirmed that Lionel Messi, Pedri and Oscar Mingiza were bruised in this victory, but they are expected to recover quickly.
Despite this, injured Gerard Pique, Anso Fati and Sergi Roberto will continue to be absent, as well as striker Othman Dembele, who suffers from a problem in the hamstring muscles.
As for the royal club, it faced a major crisis at the beginning of this month after losing to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League, but he shined after that, and will try to continue the distinguished results when he faces Eibar on Sunday.
Real, the defending champion, has won its last four matches in all competitions, including the capital's summit match against Atlético earlier this week, to equal the points balance with its neighbor, although the royal has played two more matches than his rival.
"Merengue" coach Zinedine Zidane welcomed the return of midfielder Martin Odegaard from injury before traveling to face Eibar, but attacking trio Eden Hazard, Mariano Diaz and Luca Jovic are unlikely to join the match.
And after tomorrow, Saturday, Al Atleti tries to make up for its first loss this season when it hosts Elche, before Sociedad is a guest at Levante.