La Liga: Barcelona are ready for a Tuesday Trip to Mallorca

Mallroca vs Barcelona

The holiday spot of Mallorca is famed for its hot and dry summers on sun-kissed Mediterranean beaches, as well as a lively nightlife, but on Wednesday the island will take on a different persona for the visit of league leaders Barcelona.

The Blaugrana will not be heading south for a mini vacation; in fact they need to get to work on bringing their title challenge back on track. Over the first couple of months of the new campaign Hansi Flick’s men raced away at the top of the La Liga table but they are on a sticky run, without a victory in three and losing at home to Las Palmas on Saturday lunchtime. 

Meanwhile, under Jagoba Arrasate Mallorca have put together an impressive run of La Liga 2024 results and are riding high in the Primera Division, in fifth place on Sunday morning, after beating Valencia 2-1 on Friday night. The hosts are in good shape and this will not be an easy trip for the league leaders, but I expect them to emerge from the 25,000 capacity Iberostar Estadi with three points. 

 

Talking Points

Home is not so comfortable for Mallorca

If Barcelona need a pick-up after their latest setback there is some good news in Mallorca’s home form which is not so impressive, recording just two victories, three draws and two defeats. The Friday win over Valencia was a welcome success at home, following on from an edgy 1-0 victory over Real Valladolid. That they have only beaten the bottom two sides at home is a curiosity for Mallorca fans, and they had to come from behind to beat Valencia.

Players to watch out for are experienced Canada winger Cyle Larin, who was on target in Los Piratas’ win over Los Ches, and midfielder Dani Rodriguez who is top scoring with three goals, and he has made four assists.  

Arrasate has done a good job in his first season as Mallorca boss, having managed Osasuna for six seasons. A year ago the Mallorcans were 17^th in the table but this is a team full of confidence and they did beat Barca’s conquerors Las Palmas only last week, edging a five goal thriller with Rodriguez on target. 

 

Is this more than a blip for Barca?

After such an electric start to the campaign the La Liga 2024 betting odds have recently started to drift away from Barcelona. Flick’s team have struggled on the road, losing 1-0 away to Real Sociedad and then surrendering a two goal lead against Deportivo Alaves. But a defeat at home on Saturday was the big headline grabber.     

Losing to Las Palmas is a bad result for sure but look beneath the surface and it wasn’t such a seismic shock as we might think. Las Palmas made it four league wins in six as they withstood a Catalan wave; and when you look at the statistics for the game it’s hard to see any regression in Barca’s play…even though results have been disappointing. The hosts had 70 per cent possession against Las Palmas, a whopping 27 shots to five and eight to three on target. Barcelona’s passing completion was high at 88 per cent whereas the backs-to-the-wall visitors spent much of the game just clearing their lines, with a pass completion of 64 per cent.

This was a classic away day smash-and-grab for Las Palmas…a real mugging!      

That will have hurt the Catalans but, while domestic matters have taken a turn for the worse, Barcelona picked up an impressive win away to the previously undefeated Brest in the Champions League last week as Robert Lewandowski racked up his 100^th goal in Europe’s premier competition.    

Lewandowski is racing away with the Pichichi with 15 goals already and Brazilian winger Raphinha scored his ninth of the season in the loss to Las Palmas; and with Dani Olmo back fit and firing this is a team of superstars.

I reckon this is a blip and nothing more. 

 

History

The Blaugrana have won 29 of the last 42 meetings with Real Mallorca, losing seven and drawing six, but last season Barca found this fixture a little sticky, drawing 2-2 on the holiday island before squeezing out a 1-0 win in Catalonia. 

In terms of recent form the stats are identical, with both teams winning three, drawing two and losing one in all competitions.

 

Betting Tip

Real Mallorca are at SBOTOP odds of 4.78 to win a third home match of the season with the Draw at 3.70. Either of those outcomes would be seriously bad news for Barcelona, who are at 1.54 to get back to winning ways and, if they play as they did against Las Palmas, I believe the Blaugrana will get their reward. 

   

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