Granada's battle to remain in La Liga will continue on Sunday afternoon when they welcome Celta Vigo to Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes.
The home side are currently 18th in the table, one point behind 17th-placed Cadiz on the same matches (33), while Celta occupy 12th position, nine points clear of the relegation zone.
Match preview
© Reuters
Granada beat fellow strugglers Alaves on March 19 to boost their survival hopes, but the Andalusian club are winless in their last four, picking up just two points in the process.
The home side will enter this contest off the back of a morale-boosting point away to Atletico Madrid, though, and they are only one point behind 17th-placed Cadiz heading into the next set of fixtures, so are still very much alive in the league despite their struggles this term.
Granada have finished seventh and ninth in their last two La Liga campaigns but 17th would be considered a huge success at this stage of the season, with the club bidding to avoid being relegated back to the Segunda Division after back-to-back campaigns in the top flight.
Aitor Karanka was appointed head coach earlier this month, and the 48-year-old managed to lead the team to a point against Atletico last time out, so the strugglers should enter this match in good confidence.
Granada have the third-worst home record in La Liga this season, though, and will be welcoming a Celta outfit that have picked up 20 points from their 16 away league games in 2021-22.
© Reuters
Celta, meanwhile, will enter this contest off the back of a 2-0 home defeat to Getafe on April 20, which has left them in 12th position in the table on 39 points.
The Sky Blues are nine points clear of the relegation zone and just three points behind 10th-placed Valencia, so they should be looking up the division rather than down at this stage.
Celta finished eighth in La Liga last term but will not be able to repeat that this season; that said, 12th would still represent their second-best campaign since 2016, and the team appears to be heading firmly in the right direction under the management of Eduardo Coudet.
The Vigo outfit, who will take on Alaves, Barcelona, Elche and Valencia in their final four matches of the campaign, have only actually won one of their last six league matches, while they have lost three of their last four during a disappointing run of form.
Celta ran out 1-0 winners in the reverse match between the two sides earlier this season, but the corresponding match at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes last term finished goalless.
- L
- W
- D
- L
- L
- D
- L
- D
- L
- L
- W
- L
Team News
© Reuters
Granada will be able to welcome German Sanchez back following a suspension, but Quini, Victor Diaz and Domingos Duarte are all banned due to their bookings against Atletico.
Raul Torrente, Ruben Rochina, Carlos Neva, Maxime Gonalons and Neyder Lozano, meanwhile, are all injured, so the home side will be missing a number of important players for this match.
Three of the back four from the clash with Atletico will have to be changed, but the attack is likely to remain the same, with Darwin Machis and Antonio Puertas set to support Luis Suarez.
As for Celta, Hugo Mallo remains on the sidelines with a knee injury, while Jeison Murillo and Augusto Solari will both miss the contest through suspension.
The Sky Blues did not pick up any injuries to their starting XI against Getafe last time out, and head coach Coudet is expected to resist the temptation to shuffle his pack for this match.
There could be a change in a wide position, though, with Nolito bidding to replace Franco Cervi.
Santi Mina and Iago Aspas have scored 21 league goals between them during the 2021-22 campaign and will again feature as the front two for Celta here.
Granada possible starting lineup:
Maximiano; Montoro, G Sanchez, Barcia, Escudero; Petrovic, Milla; Puertas, Collado, Machis; L Suarez
Celta Vigo possible starting lineup:
Dituro; Vazquez, Aidoo, Araujo, Galan; Mendez, Beltran, Nolito; Suarez; Mina, Aspas
We say: Granada 1-1 Celta Vigo
The pair played out a goalless draw when they locked horns in the corresponding match last season, and we are predicting another stalemate here. Granada certainly need all three points more than Celta, but the Sky Blues have been relatively strong on their travels this season, and we can see this game finishing all square.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Celta Vigo win with a probability of 45.04%. A win for Granada had a probability of 28.81% and a draw had a probability of 26.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Celta Vigo win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.23%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.03%) and 0-2 (8.16%). The likeliest Granada win was 1-0 (8.56%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.43%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.4% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.
