Good evening and welcome to Eurosport's LIVE coverage of the Spanish Liga fixture between Barcelona and Alaves. We'll bring you all the action as it happens at the Camp Nou. Kick off is at 20:00 GMT.

Danger for Barca! Rioja has the home defence on the run as he drives into the box down the left. His low cross was looking for Joselu, but Umtiti manages to cut it out!

GRIEZMANN... wide! That would have been some team goal for Barcelona! Firpo passes to Messi, he chips over the top for Griezmann, but the Frenchman slices his volley wide!

The relationship between Pedri and Messi is so strong that some have suggested the Argentine could be persuaded to stay at Barcelona to act as a mentor to the teenage playmaker.

Pedri has been one of the biggest success stories of Barcelona’s season so far. The teenager has become a key figure for the Catalans since making the move from Las Palmas in the summer.

After this match Barcelona will face Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League on February 16. That’s a huge game in their season. Koeman needs a good showing and result against the French champions.

A change for Barcelona and Pedri is on for Ilaix. He can be pleased with his debut.

Fingertips wide! That should have been a third Barcelona goal with Trincao released clean through on goal. He had Ilaix square, but took on the shot himself only for Pacheco to tip wide.

Saved by Pacheco! A Messi freekick on the edge of the area spelled danger for Alaves, but the goalkeeper makes the diving save to prevent the Argentine from scoring a second goal.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Barcelona 2 Alaves 1 (58 mins - Luis Rioja). A lifeline for Alaves in this match! Ilaix gave up the ball and that allowed Rioja to race through the centre of the Barcelona defence and find the back of the net with a calm and composed low finish past ter Stegen. That was far too easy!

Messi’s future as a Barcelona player is tied to what happens in the presidential election. The 33-year-old is out of contract in the summer and won’t sign an extension until he thinks the club is in good hands.

Joan Laporta is widely seen as the frontrunner to be elected Barcelona’s next president, although Victor Font is still regarded as a viable candidate. Both want to transform the Camp Nou club.

Of course, Barcelona’s resurgent recent form comes against the backdrop of the uncertainty over the presidential election. Socios will finally go to the polls in early March to elect a new president.

Perez shoots over! The space opened up for the former Arsenal man to get the effort away from 20 yards out, but ter Stegen was comfortable in watching that flash over.

Rodriguez is shown a yellow card for an arm into the face of Firpo.

PICTURE: Messi scored a stunner

Alaves are struggling down near the wrong end of the Spanish Liga table at the moment. Indeed, they are slumped in 16th place, just two points off the bottom three teams. They need points!

This happened right at the end of the first half!

That was a chance! The angle was tight but Perez was through on goal. He decided to take on the shot himself, but gets it all wrong and slices high and wide at the near post!