There is no reminder quite like a slim, fragile one point lead atop the table Barcelona have on Real Madrid with 16 games to go – while hopes are always high the challenger slips up at some point or another, the onus is on league leaders Barcelona to stay steady as the finish line inches closer and closer.
It is why Saturday’s match against Mallorca, much like the last few since a January defeat at Real Sociedad trimmed their advantage from four points to one, feels like an unusually high-pressure affair. LaLiga’s first place team boasting generational talent Lamine Yamal should be able to handle Spain’s 14th best team in routine fashion and may go on to do just that, greater tests of their overall credentials as the league’s top team and one of Europe’s elites await. This is no ordinary Barcelona side, though – there are hints of vulnerability on display on days when you least expect them, routine wins occasionally evading Hansi Flick’s side despite their talents.
The match, in some sense, will be a tale of two attackers. Raphinha will miss Saturday’s match with the thigh issue that kept him out of Tuesday’s win at Albacate in the Copa del Rey, though it is a short term issue that is not expected to keep him on the sideline after the weekend’s fixture. Barcelona have fared well without Raphinha this season, their attacking form dipping only slightly during his two month injury layoff in the fall, but it is hard to overstate the Brazilian’s importance to the team. He has eight goals this season in LaLiga, putting him seventh amongst the league’s top goalscorers despite his time on the sidelines. He ranks fifth overall for goals per game amongst players who have 500-plus minutes in the league with 0.6, well behind Kylian Mbappe’s one goal per game average but fairly impressive for someone who has played seven fewer games.
CBS Sports
How to watch Barcelona vs. Mallorca, odds
- Date: Saturday, Feb. 7 | Time: 10:15 a.m. ET
- Location: Camp Nou — Barcelona, Spain
- Live stream: ESPN Select
- Odds: Barcelona -650; Draw +750; Mallorca +1200
While Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski, who respectively have 12 and nine goals in league play, can be called upon to hold down the attacking fort while Raphinha watches on, success in that area will be key for Barcelona to contend with an attacker who should be present on Saturday – Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi. The visitors have been below average in various categories all season and will trek to Barcelona while sitting just two points out of the relegation zone, in desperate need of points that they are unlikely to win on Saturday.
Kosovo international Muriqi, though, has been a saving grace for Mallorca as they look to avoid the drop. While Mbappe leads the goalscoring charts, Muriqi has been the next best goalscorer in LaLiga this season – he has 15 goals and ranks behind only Mbappe and Torres in expected goals with 11.63 in 21 matches. He has already matched his best goalscoring season in LaLiga, the 2022-23 campaign when they finished ninth, scoring 54% of Mallorca’s league goals in the process. Wins have been hard to come by for Mallorca but as close as they are to the drop zone, they are not all that far away from the top half of the table – eighth place Real Sociedad have just four points on them, Muriqi likely to play a key role if his side dig themselves out of their hole.
A game against Barcelona, then, marks a perfect occasion for Muriqi to lead the way for Mallorca as they battle relegation. For all of the hosts’ might, their defensive weaknesses have been hard 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 Atletico Madrid, for that matter – and rank seventh in LaLiga when ranking teams based on their expected goals against tallies.
They have the ability to simply outscore Mallorca, which they very well might since their next goalscorer in the league, Samu Costa, has four goals. There is a genuine opening for Muriqi, though, to add goals to his tally in the hopes of picking up valuable points for Mallorca – and perhaps tilting things in the title race in the process.
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