Birmingham City vs Barcelona predictions take us to St. Andrew’s Knighthead Park for the biggest friendly in the Blues’ recent history. Kick-off is at 7.45pm on Friday 31st July, with a sold-out St Andrew’s welcoming the La Liga champions to B9 for the first meeting between the clubs since the 1960 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final.
Chris Davies’ side arrive in perfect pre-season shape, having won every friendly they have played this summer. Barcelona, by contrast, are only at the start of their preparations. Hansi Flick has travelled to the Midlands without his eight Spain World Cup winners, so a 30-man squad packed with academy talent and new signing Karim Adeyemi will carry the load.
Birmingham City vs Barcelona predictions & betting tips
| Our Prediction | Odds & Bookmaker | Confidence | Why We’re Backing It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karim Adeyemi to score anytime | 13/8 with bet365 | ⭐⭐⭐ | Adeyemi has been included in the travelling squad and is expected to make his Barcelona debut here. With Robert Lewandowski gone on a free transfer and Ferran Torres, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Raphinha all unavailable, the German is the closest thing Flick has to a senior forward. That should mean a decent run of minutes in a front three alongside Shane Kluivert and Roony Bardghji, and Adeyemi will want an early goal to justify his move from Borussia Dortmund. Barcelona scored four times in their opening friendly against CE Europa. |
| Jay Stansfield to score anytime | 13/8 with bet365 | ⭐⭐ | Stansfield is expected to start through the middle and Davies has said he wants a proper test rather than a procession. Barcelona’s makeshift back line features Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen but no Pau Cubarsi or Eric Garcia, and Wojciech Szczesny is likely to be behind a defence with barely any minutes together this summer. Stansfield shared Birmingham’s league top-scorer award last season with 10 goals and has already been on target in pre-season, netting in the 2-1 win at Crewe. |
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How both teams head into Birmingham City vs Barcelona
Birmingham City
Birmingham finished 10th in the Championship last season, their highest league placing for a decade. Davies’ side collected 64 points from 46 matches, winning 17 and drawing 13, and closed the campaign with a five-game unbeaten run capped by a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth. Home form was the platform: 12 wins and only three defeats at St Andrew’s, where they scored 39 goals.
Away from home it was a different story. Blues won only five of 23 road matches and conceded 34 goals, and they conceded first in 18 of those games. Fixing that is the priority as they look to turn a top-half finish into a promotion push.
Pre-season has gone perfectly. Blues opened with a 3-1 win over Huddersfield Town in the Algarve on 10th July, Demarai Gray converting a penalty before a Kyogo Furuhashi double. They then beat Solihull Moors 3-0 in the Arthur Cup, won 1-0 at Burton Albion through August Priske and, on a split-squad day, beat both Northampton Town and Crewe Alexandra, with Gray scoring twice at Sixfields and Stansfield and Briar Bateman on target at the Mornflake Stadium.
Priske has been the story of the summer with three goals in three appearances, while Jhon Solis has impressed since making his move from Girona permanent. Blues have made four signings so far, with Luis Vazquez arriving from Anderlecht.
Barcelona
Barcelona were champions of Spain again in 2025/26, Flick’s second title in his first two seasons in charge. They finished eight points clear of Real Madrid on 94 points, sealing the league in the Clasico at a renovated Camp Nou on 10th May, and added the Spanish Super Cup by beating Real Madrid 3-2 in the final. It was the club’s 29th La Liga title and the first successful defence since 2019.
Europe remains the sore point. Barcelona finished fifth in the Champions League league phase, beat Newcastle United in the round of 16, then lost 3-2 on aggregate to Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals. Atletico also knocked them out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-final stage, winning 4-3 on aggregate.
This summer the club skipped a long-haul tour because of the World Cup, choosing instead a training camp at St George’s Park in Burton. Birmingham is the first of four warm-up matches, with Preston North End, Nottingham Forest and Udinese to follow before a final friendly against Al Ahly on 19th August. La Liga begins against Elche on 23rd August.
Their only outing so far was a 4-1 win over CE Europa on 24th July, a closed-doors game in which academy players scored all four goals. Anthony Gordon and Adeyemi have arrived, while Lewandowski left when his contract expired.
Birmingham City vs Barcelona team news
Davies is expected to use different XIs in each half, as he has for much of pre-season. Vazquez could be handed his debut after completing his move from Anderlecht, while Stansfield is likely to lead the line from the first whistle with Patrick Roberts and Carlos Vicente in support.
James Beadle should start in goal, with Dael Fry also expected to feature after signing a three-year deal earlier in the summer. Christoph Klarer has captained the side in several friendlies.
Barcelona are without their eight Spain World Cup winners. Ferran Torres, Joan Garcia, Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Gavi, Dani Olmo, Pedri and Lamine Yamal are all on a post-tournament break, while Gordon has extra time off after reaching the semi-finals with England. Jules Kounde has yet to link up with the group.
Raphinha has joined the squad in England but is not expected to feature in either of the next two matches. Frenkie de Jong travelled despite a knee injury and is unlikely to play, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen is in the party while still expected to leave the club this summer.
Adeyemi could make his debut, with Araujo, Alejandro Balde, Marc Bernal and Marc Casado giving the side some senior spine. Fermin Lopez may get minutes after the injury that ruled him out of the World Cup, and Shane Kluivert, son of former Barcelona striker Patrick Kluivert, is in line to start.
Birmingham City vs Barcelona head-to-head
These clubs have met five times, all in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup between 1957 and 1960. Barcelona won three, Birmingham won one and one finished level.
Their 1957 semi-final was decided by a play-off. Birmingham won the first leg 4-3 at St Andrew’s, Barcelona won the return 1-0, and the Catalans then won the replay 2-1 to reach the final. Three years later the sides met in the 1958-60 final, with Birmingham becoming the first English club to reach a European final. A goalless draw at St Andrew’s in front of 40,524 was followed by a 4-1 defeat at Camp Nou, where Eulogio Martinez, Zoltan Czibor twice and Lluis Coll scored before Harry Hooper’s late consolation.
| Date | Match | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/05/60 | Barcelona vs Birmingham City | 4-1 | Fairs Cup final, 2nd leg |
| 29/03/60 | Birmingham City vs Barcelona | 0-0 | Fairs Cup final, 1st leg |
| 26/11/57 | Barcelona vs Birmingham City | 2-1 | Fairs Cup semi-final play-off |
| 13/11/57 | Barcelona vs Birmingham City | 1-0 | Fairs Cup semi-final |
| 23/10/57 | Birmingham City vs Barcelona | 4-3 | Fairs Cup semi-final |
Birmingham City vs Barcelona prediction
The bookmakers make Barcelona 4/6 favourites, with Birmingham 16/5 and the draw 29/10, and that looks about right even with the visitors so heavily depleted. Flick’s side may be short of household names, but the technical level of a Barcelona B-heavy XI is still a step above anything Blues have faced this summer.
Birmingham have earned their optimism, though. Five wins from five, clean sheets against Burton and Solihull, and a striker in Priske who cannot stop scoring all point to a side further along in its preparation than the opposition. Add a sold-out St Andrew’s on a Friday night and Davies’ players will not want to be passengers.
We expect Barcelona’s quality to show in the final third while Birmingham’s sharpness gets them on the scoresheet, which is why the two anytime goalscorer markets appeal more than the result itself. A narrow, entertaining Barcelona win is the sensible landing spot.
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