Granada and Mallorca will be hoping to get their first wins of the season as they face off in the La Liga. Granada is at the bottom of the standings after losing its first two games of the year. Mallorca, with one point from its first two games, is in fifteenth place.
Preview (Granada vs. Mallorca)
Granada finished first in the Segunda Division in 2022–23 with 75 points. They secured a return to this level of football. However, they did lose 11 of their 42 league games the previous year. Paco Lopez’s team is yet to make an impression in the new season after losing their opening match 3-1 at Atletico Madrid on August 14 and then losing 2-0 to Rayo Vallecano on Monday. Granada is now near the bottom of the league table. It makes it more important for them to get a win here. They also have a difficult trip to Real Sociedad coming up next weekend before the international break.
The Andalusian team added six players to their roster this summer. Shon Weissman—a 27-year-old who joined the club following a loan—represents the most expensive acquisition. In fact, Granada has triumphed over Mallorca in their last four league encounters. It included a 4-1 triumph in the comparable game during the 2021–22 La Liga season. The two matches between these teams in 2021–2022 were very entertaining. Granada also crushed Mallorca 6-2 in Palma, but this matchup isn’t going to be very high-scoring. Prior to losing 1-0 to Villarreal at home the last time out, Mallorca drew 1-1 with Las Palmas in their season opener on August 12. Gerard Moreno decided the game.
Javier Aguirre’s team is currently 15th in the standings with one point. They remain optimistic about having a similar season to last year when the ended ninth in the top flight. In contrast to Lee Kang-in, the Pirates added seven new players this summer, including Sergi Darder and Cyle Larin.
Team News
For the home team, Weissman is still a serious question mark, and Raul Torrente is sidelined with a muscular problem; the defender might not be available until after the international break. There is a good likelihood that head coach Lopez will stick with the same starting lineup for this game, with Bryan Zaragoza expected to join Jose Callejon and Myrto Uzuni in the last third of the field. Mallorca, on the other hand, hasn’t disclosed any injury concerns for this game, thus head coach Aguirre might have his full roster available this weekend.
Larin might be added to work alongside Vedat Muriqi in the final third, altering the lineup from the one that began against Villarreal. Darder is also anticipated to join the lineup on Saturday, with Amath Ndiaye and Dani Rodriguez most likely to be benched for the match against Granada. As previously indicated, both games during the 2021–22 season were high-scoring contests, but we anticipate this encounter to be closer. There are valid arguments for both teams to claim victory, but we have a hunch that at the conclusion of the 90 minutes, the two teams will split the spoils.
Granada 1 – 1 Mallorca
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