Barcelona travel to Mestalla to face Valencia on Saturday night in La Liga, with Hansi Flick having called up 23 players for the season finale even though his side have already secured the title.
There is little at stake for the trophy — Barcelona clinched their 29th La Liga crown under Flick — but a win would see them finish the campaign on 97 points. The champions also closed the season having become the first team to record a perfect home record since the league expanded to 20 teams.
Valencia arrive having won three of their last five matches and with momentum after an improved month. Carlos Corberán’s side can still affect the continental picture: a victory over Barcelona, coupled with defeats for Getafe and Rayo Vallecano elsewhere this weekend, could send Valencia into the UEFA Conference League.
The end of Barcelona’s campaign has been uneven. The side suffered an away defeat at Alavés in their most recent road match — a loss that came 48 hours after the club celebrated its 29th La Liga title with a parade through the streets of Barcelona. Squad selection for Mestalla will be closely watched: Fermín López is ruled out of the finale with a foot injury and Lamine Yamal is absent with a hamstring problem, while Raphinha and Jules Kounde did not travel. Frenkie de Jong and Ferran Torres, however, are back after missing last week.
The match kicks off at 9pm CET/WAT in Barcelona (8pm BST, 3pm ET, 12pm PT, 12.30am IST). With Barcelona already champions under Flick, the fixture reads as a final appearance for a settled squad list rather than a must-win for the title, but Valencia’s late run and the permutations for European qualification give Mestalla a sharper edge than a routine season-closer.
Across La Liga other clubs have made similar late calls on their squads — Espanyol, for instance, named 23 for their decisive finale against Real Sociedad this weekend ( — and that raises the familiar end-of-season question about how managers balance reward, rest and competition in the last game.
The tension is plain: Barcelona finished the season immaculate at Camp Nou yet were beaten away shortly after celebrating the title, and several notable absences on the road strip some depth from Flick’s options. That contrast between domestic dominance and susceptibility on the road is the clearest unresolved thread heading into Saturday night.
The single question that now matters is whether Valencia’s recent improvement — and Barcelona’s patchwork travelling squad — can combine to change the shape of European qualification; if Getafe and Rayo Vallecano slip up, a shock at Mestalla would have consequences far beyond a late-season scalp.
