There is no better reminder than a slim and fragile one-point lead at the top of the table that Barcelona has over Real Madrid with 16 games remaining. While there are always high hopes that the opposition will slip up at some point or another, the onus is on league leaders Barcelona to remain stable as the finish line gets closer and closer.
That’s why Saturday’s game against Mallorca, like the last few since a January loss to Real Sociedad reduced their lead from four points to one, feels like an unusually high-pressure affair. LaLiga’s first-place team featuring generational talent Lamine Yamal should routinely be able to take on Spain’s 14th-best team and may well do so, as further evidence of its overall credentials as the league’s best team and one of Europe’s elite awaits. However, this is not just any Barcelona: there are signs of vulnerability on display on days when you least expect it, routine victories that occasionally elude Hansi Flick’s team despite their talent.
The match, in a sense, will be a story of two attackers. Raphinha will miss Saturday’s game with a thigh problem that kept him out of Tuesday’s Copa del Rey victory in Albacate, although it is a short-term problem that is not expected to keep him on the sidelines after the weekend’s game. Barcelona have fared well without Raphinha this season, their attacking form declining only slightly during his two-month injury layoff in the autumn, but it is difficult to overstate the Brazilian’s importance to the team. He has eight goals this season in LaLiga, which places him seventh among the top scorers in the championship despite his time on the bench. He ranks fifth overall in goals per game among players with 500+ minutes in the league at 0.6, well behind Kylian Mbappé’s one goal per game average, but quite impressive for someone who has played seven fewer games.
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How to watch Barcelona vs. Mallorca, probabilities
- Date: Saturday February 7 | Time: 10:15 a.m. Eastern Time
- Location: Camp Nou — Barcelona, Spain
- Live broadcast: ESPN Selection
- Odd: Barcelona -650; Draw +750; Mallorca +1200
While Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski, who have 12 and nine goals respectively in the league, may be called upon to defend the attacking fort while Raphinha watches, success in that area will be key for Barcelona to take on an attacker who should be present on Saturday: Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi. The visitors have been below average in several categories all season and will travel to Barcelona just two points clear of the relegation zone, in desperate need of points they are unlikely to win on Saturday.
The Kosovar international Muriqi, however, has been a salvation for Mallorca seeking to avoid relegation. While Mbappé leads the scoring charts, Muriqi has been the next best scorer in LaLiga this season: he has 15 goals and is only behind Mbappé and Torres in expected goals with 11.63 in 21 games. He has already equaled his best scoring season in LaLiga, the 2022-23 campaign when he finished ninth, scoring 54% of Mallorca’s league goals in the process. Wins have been hard to come by for Mallorca, but despite how close they are to the relegation zone, they are not that far from the top half of the table: eighth-placed Real Sociedad have just four points and Muriqi is likely to play a key role if his team digs out of their hole.
A match against Barcelona, then, marks a perfect opportunity for Muriqi to lead the way for Mallorca in their fight against relegation. For all the hosts’ power, their defensive weaknesses have been difficult to ignore this season, even in unlikely scenarios like a 3-3 draw at Club Brugge or a 4-2 win at Slavia Praha in the UEFA Champions League. Unsurprisingly, Barcelona have several more goals conceded than Real Madrid (and Atlético Madrid, for that matter) and are seventh in LaLiga when ranking teams based on their expected goals versus their totals.
They have the ability to overtake Mallorca, something they could very well do, as their next top scorer in the league, Samu Costa, has four goals. However, Muriqi has a real chance to add goals to his tally in the hope of picking up valuable points for Mallorca, and perhaps tipping the scales in the title race in the process.
