Slavia Prague vs Barcelona Prediction & Betting Tips (21 January)

Too limited to play the leading roles in this Champions League, Slavia Prague is dragging its feet at the bottom of the ranking, in 33rd position out of 36. And with 3 small units on the clock, the Czechs have practically said goodbye to all their chances of being able to climb beyond the group stage before these last 2 days. However, Jindrich Trpisovsky's players were able to hold off Bodo Glimt 2-2, Atalanta 0-0 and Bilbao 0-0, each time at home but otherwise suffered on the road against Inter 3-0, Arsenal 0-3 and Tottenham 3-0. In terms of current affairs, however, Slavia is performing and has even made a breakthrough at the top of the local championship standings, 7 lengths ahead of its neighbor and rival Sparta. With the championship still on winter break, Prague has played friendly matches in recent weeks. Beaten by FC Basel 4-3 and held in check by Karlsruhe 1-1, they will again face the Norwegians of Brann before receiving Barça.

Barça, for their part, started this new year 2026 very well by winning the Spanish Super Cup after beating Athletic Bilbao 5-0 in the semi-final then Real Madrid in the final 2-1 to retain this title. The Catalans assume their status as leader of the Spanish championship where they were 4 steps ahead of the Merengue again before challenging Real Sociedad next weekend. In the Champions League, the Culers are currently only in 15th place in the standings, 2 points behind the top 8. Hanging on to Club Bruges 3-3 and outclassed by Chelsea 3-0, Hansi Flick's players still managed to get back on track by dominating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 on the final day. 

Slavia Prague has decided not to include replacement goalkeeper Kolar, the little-used Zmrzly, the interesting Vorlicky (2 goals in the league), the Liberian international Fully and the long-term injured Javorcek and Sevcik on the list of players authorized to play in this Champions League. All of them are in fact injured or simply do not fit into their coach's plans. Absent during the trip to Tottenham, executive midfielder Oscar and Czech international Chory (9 goals in the league) will, however, be back a priori. For the moment, this Slavia team is struggling to stand out offensively and defender Mbodji, who scored twice on the first day against Bodo/Glimt, is the only one to have scored in this Champions League. In addition to Chory (9 goals), we expect more in C1 from attackers Chytil (7 goals) and Provod (4 goals). Unsurprisingly, former goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen will still not be present in the group. Andreas Christensen and midfielder Gavi complete the infirmary, also injured.

Forced to step aside for a while, Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo made his return at the start of the year during the Clasico against Real. In full swing to offer the Spanish Super Cup to his team, Raphinha scored 4 goals in his team's 2 matches. The Brazilian also has 7 goals to his credit in La Liga as does the nugget Lamine Yamal (also 7 assists) but she is suspended this week for an accumulation of yellow cards. Ferran Torres (11 goals in La Liga) and Robert Lewandowski (9 goals in La Liga) are also fit to play. That said, Barcelona's top scorer in this Champions League is the Englishman Marcus Rashford with his 4 goals.