The 2019-20 Spanish La Liga season restarts on Thursday after a three-month lay-off with a trip to RCD Mallorca first on the cards for Barcelona.
Sevilla will host rivals Real Betis on Thursday night in the first game back with all games scheduled to kick off at different times over six weeks which promises to make for a thrilling end, particularly in the current climate.
Barcelona is the final of four games on Saturday when we travel to Mallorca whilst Real Madrid aren’t in action until Sunday evening, hosting Eibar. After such a lengthy disruption fans may want to assess the La Liga predictions ahead of the matches from Thursday.
We have a two-point lead over Real Madrid at the top of the table with 11 games to play. Our games are between 3-5 days apart with trips to Sevilla and a home game against Atletico Madrid being the main matches if we’re to successfully defend our La Liga crown.
La Liga restarting will be music to the ears of football fans in both Spain and worldwide given the current climate and what people have been experiencing over the past three months. Be sure for a big national and international audience, particularly with games on every single day at different kick-off times in what has been dubbed a World Cup-style format.
A look at our opponents, RCD Mallorca:
We ran out 5-2 winners in the reverse fixture at Camp Nou back in December. Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring after only seven minutes whilst we had a 4-1 lead at half-time. Lionel Messi completed his hat-trick in the final 10 minutes.
Mallorca head into the restart in the relegation zone, one point below Celta Vigo with a trip to Villarreal three days after they host us.
They only have seven different goalscorers this season, with Croatian striker Ante Budimir their top scorer with nine goals.
Key Battles
Lionel Messi vs Lumor Agbenyenu
Lionel Messi is the key player going into any match and the Argentine superstar won’t be any different on Saturday. Messi leads the club with 19 goals and 12 assists and likes to cut in from the right. In what is sure to be a thrilling spectacle for fans, even though they cannot attend games, there will be opportunities to watch this La Liga game via live stream or catch it on TV late at night.
This means young left-back Lumor Agbenyenu will likely be matched up against him down the wing before one of the centre-backs are forced to come across. He has been the regular left-back since Fran Gamez got turned inside-out by Messi in the first meeting.
Antoine Griezmann vs Alejandro Pozo
Down the opposite flank, Antoine Griezmann is a constant goalscoring threat too. The France international opened the scoring between these two teams back in December.
Alejandro Pozo did not play that day, but the 21-year-old started their last five games before the disruption and could be the starting right-back this weekend. If so, he has a huge task up against a goalscorer who likes to dart in from the left flank.
Ante Budimir vs Barcelona defence
Mallorca managed to score two goals at the Camp Nou in the previous meeting and if our attack is affected by the long lay-off then our defence will need to keep the goals down to a minimum this weekend.
The hosts can be expected to start with Ante Budimir leading the line as he did last time, getting among the goals.
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