As the international break finally came to a close, Barcelona were looking to move to the top of the table after watching Real Madrid stay ahead of the pack for the last few weeks; it was not going to be easy. Malaga had been Luis Enrique’s Kryptonite for a while and it looked like this match wasn’t going to be very different. Former Barça man Sandro had put his scoring boots on since his move to Malaga, and his return to Camp Nou was a sub-plot that had plenty of eyes on it.
With Umtiti and Iniesta recovering from injuries, and a suspension to Luis Suarez, Barcelona were looking at Neymar and Messi to lead the team to a comfortable victory.