Barcelona hosts Racing looking to keep perfect record atop LaLiga

Five games, five wins. That's the stat that should worry any team lining up against Barcelona this early in LaLiga, and this Wednesday it's Racing de Santander's turn, visiting Camp Nou hoping to pull off an upset while also keeping an eye on what's coming next on the calendar.

The matchup for matchday six of LaLiga 2026/2027 is set for this Wednesday, September 16, with kickoff at 4:30 PM for Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and 2:30 PM for Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. The broadcast for South America will air on Disney+'s Premium Plan.

A Barcelona side showing no mercy

Some teams start the season trying things out, tinkering with lineups, searching for an identity. Not Hansi Flick's Barcelona. They've won all five matches they've played so far in LaLiga and arrive at this clash as league leaders with a perfect record, which alone piles pressure on any opponent before the match even kicks off. Their most recent outing was a 4-2 rout of Levante, further proof that this team has plenty of firepower spread across multiple players.

And that's the other side of the coin for Racing: they won't just be facing Barcelona's usual starters. The Catalan squad is so deep that Flick can shuffle his lineup without any drop-off in quality. Names like Gabriel Jesus, Anthony Gordon or Gavi could all see minutes, which says a lot about a roster that doesn't depend on just a handful of players to get results.

Racing looks to make the most of its form

The Cantabrian side isn't arriving in bad shape. They come off a 2-1 win over Alaves and sit with 7 points on the table, a reasonable start for a newly promoted club now running into one of Spanish soccer's powerhouses. This is, in fact, their first meeting with Barcelona since returning to the top flight, and that carries extra weight for the green and white locker room.

If Racing manages to hold its own against the league leader, even by grabbing a draw or stealing a point on one of the toughest fields in the league, the psychological boost for the rest of the season would be huge. To pull that off, they'll need attacking players like Pablo Garcia and the experienced Sergio Canales to show up when it matters most.

The most recent meeting between the two sides isn't exactly encouraging for the Santander faithful: it came in the 2025/2026 Copa del Rey, on January 15, 2026 at El Sardinero, where Barcelona won 2-0 with goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres. Now the setting changes, Camp Nou brings a different kind of pressure, and Racing knows it will need more than just hope to leave Barcelona with something to show for it.