Preview: Las Palmas vs. Tenerife - prediction, team news, lineups

Las Palmas play host to Tenerife in the second leg of their Segunda Division playoff semi-final trailing by a 1-0 aggregate deficit.

Whoever prevails from this tie will progress through to a showdown with either Girona or Eibar later this month.

Match preview

Having ended the regular campaign with three successive defeats, everyone associated with Tenerife would not exactly have been confident heading into the playoffs.

However, the run of losses was inconsequential when it came to automatic promotion, and Luis Miguel Ramis's side managed to do an effective job in forgetting their previous setbacks in the first leg of this tie.

A first-half goal from Jose Leon proved enough to earn a potentially-decisive advantage, even if it represented the fifth match in succession where they have failed to net more than once in a game.

On a more positive note, Chicharreros have now kept four clean sheets in seven matches, with optimism coming from that return even with two goals being conceded in each of the three games which preceded the first leg.

The success also represented the first time that Tenerife had defeated Las Palmas this season, their opponents winning the two regular fixtures by 2-1 and 1-0 scorelines respectively.

As for Las Palmas, the defeat in the opening fixture of this tie ended a run of five successive victories and an 11-match undefeated streak.

Garcia Pimienta can only have been left disappointed from leaving Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez with a defeat when the expectation would have been to establish at least a narrow lead.

Nevertheless, having concluded the regular season as the form team in the division, Pimienta will still be backing his players to overturn the deficit in front of them.

Before that setback, Jonathan Viera had scored in six successive matches, taking his tally for the campaign to 14 strikes.

Las Palmas form (all competitions):

Tenerife form (all competitions):

Team News

Despite drawing a blank in the first leg, Pimienta will not necessarily feel obliged to ring the changes to his Las Palmas XI.

Rober and Maikel Mesa were introduced as substitutes just after the hour mark on Wednesday, but they may be kept among the replacements for this fixture.

Changes are also likely to be few and far between with the Tenerife XI, although Mario Gonzalez may drop out of the team after four games without a goal.

Potential alternative Andres Martin has been far from prolific this campaign, but he could get the nod if Gonzalez drops down to the bench.

Las Palmas possible starting lineup:

Valles; Lemos, Navas, Curbelo, Cardona; Rodriguez, Mfulu, Viera, Moleiro; Mujica, Jese

Tenerife possible starting lineup:

Soriano; Moore, Ruiz, Leon, Mellot; Mollejo, Corredera, Sanz, Bermejo; Gonzalez, Gallego

We say: Las Palmas 1-1 Tenerife (Tenerife to win 2-1 on aggregate)

All things considered, this can only a hotly-contested fixture which should only be decided by one goal at best. However, with Tenerife's narrow advantage from the first leg, we are backing the visitors to do what is required to retain their hopes of earning a return to the top flight.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.