Barcelona will be looking to return to winning ways in La Liga when they welcome relegation-threatened Mallorca to Camp Nou on Sunday night.
The Catalan outfit are currently second in the table, 15 points behind league leaders Real Madrid, who would win the title with a point against Espanyol on Saturday, while Mallorca sit 16th in Spain's top flight, two points ahead of 18th-placed Granada on the same number of matches (33).
Match preview
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At this moment in time, Barcelona can still mathematically win La Liga, but Real Madrid only need a point against Espanyol on Saturday afternoon to secure the title with four matches to spare, and only an incredible set of circumstances would prevent Los Blancos from finishing at the summit.
Xavi's side are currently in second position, but they are level on points (63) with third-placed Sevilla and just two points ahead of fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, so the Catalan outfit have plenty to fight for, with a spot in the top four not yet secure.
Barcelona, who suffered European disappointment in both the Champions League and Europa League this season, are six points ahead of fifth-placed Real Betis, and securing the runners-up spot in Spain's top flight would go down as a successful campaign considering their problems both on and off the field.
Xavi's team will take on Real Betis, Celta Vigo, Getafe and Villarreal in their final four league games of the campaign, and it would be a surprise to see them drop out of the top four at this stage, but it is not impossible, having lost two of their last three league matches.
Indeed, Barcelona have been beaten 1-0 by Cadiz and Rayo Vallecano in their last two league fixtures at Camp Nou; that said, Blaugrana have won each of their last nine La Liga games against Mallorca, including a 1-0 success in the reverse match earlier this season.
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Mallorca last avoided defeat to Barcelona in La Liga back in October 2010, claiming a point at Camp Nou, and the strugglers would certainly welcome a draw this weekend, as they bid to stay outside of the bottom three.
A total of 32 points from 33 matches has left the Pirates in 16th position in the table, just two points ahead of 18th-placed Granada heading into the final straight.
Mallorca have boosted their survival hopes with two wins in their last three matches, beating Atletico Madrid 1-0 on April 9 before recording a 2-1 victory over Alaves last time out.
Los Bermellones secured a return to the top flight by finishing second in the Segunda Division last season, and they are bidding to make it back-to-back campaigns at this level for the first time since 2013, but there is still a lot of work for them to do for that to become a reality.
Javier Aguirre's side, who will face Granada, Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano and Osasuna in their final four league matches of the season, have struggled on their travels during the 2021-22 campaign, boasting the second-worst record in Spain's top flight, collecting just eight points from 16 matches.
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Team News
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Barcelona recently revealed that both Martin Braithwaite and Oscar Mingueza have tested positive for COVID-19, so the pair will not be in the squad this weekend.
Sergi Roberto, Sergino Dest and Pedri are also unavailable, while it remains to be seen whether Ansu Fati or Samuel Umtiti make the squad due to their injury problems.
Gerard Pique and Dani Alves were both unused substitutes against Rayo last time out but are likely to come back into the starting XI here, with the injured Dest and Eric Garcia potentially dropping out.
There are unlikely to be any changes in midfield or attack, though, with Ousmane Dembele again set to feature on the right of the front three, while Gavi is expected to keep his spot in the middle.
As for Mallorca, Jaume Costa, Aleksandar Sedlar and Dominik Greif will again be unavailable for selection, while Vedat Muriqi will be absent for the visitors through suspension.
Head coach Aguirre will have been delighted with what he saw against Alaves last time out, so the majority of the starting side from that match should again take to the field here.
Muriqi's absence, courtesy of his yellow card against Alaves, will likely open the door for Kang-in Lee to play in a forward area, with Abdon Prats again operating at the tip of the attack.
Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Ter Stegen; Alves, Araujo, Pique, Alba; F de Jong, Busquets, Gavi; Dembele, Aubameyang, Torres
Mallorca possible starting lineup:
Rico; Maffeo, Valjent, Raillo, Olivan; Kubo, Baba, Sevilla, Rodriguez; Kang-in; Prats
We say: Barcelona 2-1 Mallorca
Mallorca will certainly take heart from Barcelona's last two league results at Camp Nou, and the visitors arguably need the points more than the hosts. That said, the Catalan outfit will be desperate to return to winning ways, and we are expecting them to shade a close match on Sunday night.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Barcelona win with a probability of 75.37%. A draw had a probability of 15.4% and a win for Mallorca had a probability of 9.19%.
The most likely scoreline for a Barcelona win was 2-0 with a probability of 12.08%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 3-0 (10.05%) and 1-0 (9.69%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (7.3%), while for a Mallorca win it was 0-1 (2.93%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Barcelona in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Barcelona.
