On Saturday 7 December, Barça will take to the pitch at the Benito Villamarín stadium for the LaLiga matchday 16 fixture (kick-off 4.15pm CET), live on Holasports. Hansi Flick's side will be wanting to earn another three points away from home after the win last time out against Mallorca at the Son Moix stadium (1-5). Let's take a look at some of the specificities, stats and stories around this game against Betis.

Five players with blaugrana connections

Marc Bartra, Héctor Bellerín, Abde, Vitor Roque and Sergi Altimira all have blaugrana connections. 33-year-old central defender Bartra was part of the FC Barcelona youth set up from 2002 to 2016 before leaving to join Borussia Dortmund. Bellerín was at La Masia until 2011, before rejoining the Club for the 22/23 season and going loan to Sporting de Portugal in the winter transfer window.

Abde left for Real Betis on a permanent transfer in summer last year. Vitor Roque is still a Barça player as he is on loan at the green-and-whites this season, where he has scored five goals so far. Altimira didn't end up making his debut for the blaugrana first team, but he was in the youth set up until 2019, up to the U18 level.

Cubarsí back where he made his debut

Pau Cubarsí made his Barça debut in LaLiga at the Benito Villamarín stadium on 21 January this year. The 17-year-old centre back had already got some minutes in the Copa del Rey match on 18 January away to Unionistas de Salamanca. However, his LaLiga debut came just three days later and as a starter to boot. The game ended in a 2-4 win for FC Barcelona.

Ferran Torres top scorer against Betis

That debut match for Cubarsí also saw Ferran Torres score a hat-trick. The Spaniard is the current first-team squad player to have scored most against the Andalusian side (four goals). Raphinha and Lewandowski are next with three each. Conversely, with one goal each, only Marc Bartra, Juanmi and Lo Celso from the current Betis squad have managed to score against the blaugranes.

Lo Celso pulling the strings for Betis

Giovanni Lo Celso returned to the Andalusian side this summer from Tottenham Hotspur. He has since become one of the go to players for coach Manuel Pellegrini. The Argentinian attacking midfielder is his side's biggest threat, with five goals and one assist in LaLiga this season. As was mentioned earlier, he also knows what it's like to score against Barça, having done so for Betis at the Camp Nou during the 18/19 season.

Pellegrini, a familiar foe

Barça have faced sides coached by Manuel Pellegrini on no fewer than 26 occasions in LaLiga. The blaugranes have mostly come out on top in those games, with 19 wins, recording five defeats and two draws in the other matches. it's worth noting that Chilean coach Pellegrini has represented four teams when facing Barça in the domestic league, namely Villarreal, Real Madrid, Malaga and Betis.