PREVIEW | Mallorca v FC Barcelona After three games without a win, a good result is more urgent than ever, but Tuesday’s opponents are in-form sides in La Liga November is usually too early to build a convincing lead in La Liga, but that’s what carried out by FC Barcelona under Hansi Flick. As they rack up big win after big win, nothing seems to go wrong in 2024/25. But then things changed for the worse. The Catalans have now gone three games in a row without a win. A 1-0 defeat at Real Sociedad was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Celta to only draw 2-2 and then a first home defeat on Saturday, 2-1 to Las Palmas. Only one point from a possible nine allowed Real Madrid to narrow the gap is very far to just one point , and the white team also has not played the postponed match in Valencia. Madrid will also play in midweek, at home to Athletic Club on Wednesday. That match and the match involving Barça and Mallorca have been brought forward as they involve the same four teams who will travel to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup in January. Barça’s slump also puts AtlĂ©tico Madrid back in contention. They are only two points behind Barça. If you refer to history, Mallorca is a good opportunity for the Catalan club to win again. They have only lost three times to the island club in 33 meetings this century, and those three matches mean nothing once the title is confirmed. However, recent history shows that this opponent is by no means to be taken lightly. Last season, for the only time in 12 attempts, Barça failed to beat them, the match at San Moix ended 2-2, and although Barça won at the Estadi Olimpic, it was a close result, with Lamine Yamal scoring the only goal in the match.After reaching the cup final last season, Mallorca got the 2024/25 season off to an impressive start. They are currently sixth in the standings and can realistically start thinking about returning to European competition for the first time in two decades. With an average of just one goal per game, Mallorca are certainly not at the top of the rankings thanks to their attack. On the contrary, it is their performance at the back that they have to be grateful for. They conceded just 13 goals all season, the third best record in the league, equaled by Getafe. Marc Casado was suspended against Las Palmas, but will return for this game, while after coming on as a substitute in that game, the much-missed Lamine Yamal will probably make his first start since returning from injury in this game. Alejandro Balde left the field with concussion and a neck injury on Saturday, and although he has recovered, Hansi Flick may prefer to keep him on the bench against Mallorca. Ansu Fati, Marc Bernal, Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen is all still absent due to injury. Mallorca also do not have a complete squad, with Toni Lato, Ivan Cuellar, Takuma Asano and Copete all expected to miss this match. “We are the youngest team in the game. league, and we need to improve. We must also not concede goals, and everyone must defend as one. The same applies to attack. We have to stick together. Against Las Palmas… things happen, and I don’t want to going into the details. It might seem like I’m complaining or making excuses. The team could have won, but we didn’t… The team tried to control the ball—we had it for more than 70% of the game. But in football, goals are important, and we haven’t scored many goals in recent games. “There are always reasons to concede goals. For me, it’s about being in the right place at the right time, applying the right pressure… sometimes it seems easy, but it’s not. When we work as one, we protect each other. We failed to press, didn’t cover space as a team, and didn’t attack space.”
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