A team near the bottom of La Liga take on a team near the top of the Segunda Division as Mallorca travel to the Estadio Municipal de Ipurua to face Eibar in Copa del Rey action on Wednesday afternoon.
The hosts are closing in on top spot in the second tier after a series of victories, whilst their upcoming opponents have lost their last two games.
Match preview
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Eibar finished 2021 in style with three successive wins which took them through to the round of 32 in the Copa del Rey and up to second in the league.
An 83rd-minute winner from Edu Exposito earned his side a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Tenerife in the second round of the cup and returned them to winning ways after a draw and a loss in their two previous games.
Los Armeros used that momentum to push on in the league, following up a 1-0 win away at Las Palmas with a dramatic 3-2 victory at home to Real Sociedad B.
A Gustavo Blanco header and an own goal had given Eibar a two-goal lead, but Sanse squared things up in the second half before Exposito produced heroics again with another winner, this time in the 89th minute.
Gaizka Garitano will hope that his side can combine their push for a return to La Liga with a decent cup run, and they may fancy their chances in this fixture.
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Mallorca finished second in the Segunda Division last season and, after a promising opening three games, have found wins hard to come by in the top tier.
Having secured two during those first three matches, they have managed just two more league wins in the four months since.
One of those was an impressive 2-1 victory over reigning champions Atletico Madrid at the start of December, but they followed that upset with a goalless draw at home to Celta Vigo and then two losses.
A 4-1 defeat in a six-pointer with Granada was particularly painful, but Los Piratas were perhaps unfortunate to lose by a single goal to a depleted Barcelona side despite having shown plenty of resilience throughout the game.
Luis Garcia's side will have the opportunity to bounce back on Wednesday and can look to their 6-0 thrashing of Llanera in the second round for inspiration.
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Team News
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The hosts have a few absences through injury. Frederico Venancio and Oscar Sielva will require a few weeks to recover from a muscle injury and 'physical discomfort' respectively.
Forward Franchu is closer to a return but Wednesday's game will likely come too soon for him, leaving Blanco to continue to lead the line in a 5-4-1 formation.
Mallorca have had plenty of COVID-19 issues recently, with Matthew Hoppe and Takefusa Kubo potentially still unavailable, but many of their former positive cases were able to return against Barcelona.
Jaume Costa and Angel Rodriguez returned to the starting XI, whilst Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta and Jordi Mboula came on as substitutes.
Salva Sevilla and Aleksandar Sedlar were also fit enough for the bench, but Antonio Raillo remains out with an ankle problem.
Eibar possible starting lineup:
Yoel; Tejero, Burgos, Atienza, Arbilla, Tono; Quique, Munoz, Exposito, Stoichkov; Blanco
Mallorca possible starting lineup:
Reina; Maffeo, Valjent, Russo, Costa; Sanchez, Bataglia; Kang-in, D. Rodriguez, Sanchez; A. Rodriguez
We say: Eibar 2-1 Mallorca
This should be a closely-contested game which could easily go either way. Mallorca may have the better record in this fixture - winning the three previous meetings - but we are backing Eibar's strong form and home advantage to be enough to defy that particular statistic.
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 Eibar win with a probability of 42.37%. A win for Mallorca had a probability of 30.95% and a draw had a probability of 26.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Eibar win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.14%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.73%) and 2-0 (7.68%). The likeliest Mallorca win was 0-1 (9.2%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.67%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.2% likelihood.
