Espanyol vs Mallorca Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 Spanish Primera
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Espanyol will be hoping to emulate the recent past of Real Mallorca of yo-yoing between the top two divisions before beginning to properly establish themselves back in La Liga ahead of kicking on as they have done this season.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Saturday 5th October, 2024 - UK – 1:00pm / US ET – 8:00am / US PT – 5:00am
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – Premier Sports / US – ESPN have the exclusive rights to La Liga games in the USA, so Espanyol vs Mallorca may be televised on one of their affiliated channels
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – Premier Sports / US – ESPN+
ESPANYOL PREVIEW: FREEDOM OF THE CATALANS
Last season, Espanyol gained promotion to the top-flight under the management of Luis Garcia. However, he departed to become Tintin Marquez’ assistant coach with the Qatari national team. He was replaced by B team coach Manolo Gonzalez and there have been reasons to be positive in the opening few weeks of this season.
After eight matches, they have, though, only managed to collect seven points and do come into this one on the back of a three successive defeats with their losing streak extended at the Benito Villamarin at the weekend as they suffered a slender 1-0 defeat to Real Betis in Andalusia.
MALLORCA PREVIEW: EVOLVING UNDER ARRASATE
Over the summer, following on from a Copa del Rey final and securing safety under now Mexico boss Javier Aguirre, Real Mallorca sought to evolve their style of football and move into the next stage of their project with the appointment of former Osasuna boss Jago Arrasate.
They began the season quite slowly, albeit sharing a 1-1 draw with Real Madrid on the opening weekend of the campaign, but the Balearic Islanders have now enjoyed three successive victories ahead of this one. In their most recent outing, Mallorca went to the Jose Zorrilla to face Real Valladolid last weekend and managed a 2-1 victory with goals coming from Cyle Larin and Valery Fernandez.
ESPANYOL TEAM NEWS: COUPLE OF INJURIES
Espanyol have been dealing with a couple of injuries and club captain Leandro Cabrera is once again unavailable alongside midfielder Edu Exposito for this one.
There are no fresh injury concerns or suspension issues for this one, though, so Gonzalez does have the option of naming an unchanged eleven against Mallorca.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-1-1): Garcia; El Hilali, Gomez, Kumbulla, Romero; Carreras, Lozano, Gragera, Puado; Kral; Cheddira
UNAVAILABLE: Cabrera (Injured), Esposito (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
MALLORCA TEAM NEWS: KEY ATTACKERS OUT
Real Mallorca haven’t been as reliant on Kosovo international Vedat Muriqi but he remains their absolute essential key player but he is unavailable for this one alongside Takuma Asano.
As well as those two players, Javi Llabres continues his rehabilitation and is nearing a return, whilst Belgian defender Siebe Van Der Heyden is also sidelined for Mallorca.
PREDICTED XI (4-4-2): Roman; Maffeo, Raillo, Copete, Mojica; Navarro, Morlanes, Costa, Darder; Rodriguez, Larin
UNAVAILABLE: Asano (Injured), Muriqi (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE: Llabres (Injured), Van Der Heyden (Injured)
ESPANYOL VS MALLORCA PREDICTION
There is supposedly a rigidity to Espanyol this season but no team has actually lost more games than them so far this season as they hover above the drop zone. They have been able to pull off a couple of decent results and will be slightly encouraged by that. However, Mallorca are a side that have been able to do what Espanyol want to do and are now moving into another era and a fourth successive Mallorca win would not seem unlikely.
ESPANYOL VS MALLORCA TIP: DOUBLE CHANCE – MALLORCA TO WIN OR DRAW
