Espanyol will be looking to make it back-to-back wins in La Liga when the league's bottom club travel to top-four chasing Getafe on Tuesday night.
Abelardo Fernandez's side recorded a 2-0 victory over Alaves on their return to action on Saturday, but Champions League hopefuls Getafe suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Granada.
Match preview
© Reuters
Getafe have enjoyed an impressive 2019-20 campaign to date, picking up 46 points from their 28 matches to occupy fifth position in the table.
The capital club suffered a 2-1 loss at Granada on Friday night, though, and could be three points off the top four by the time that Sunday's fixtures have taken place.
Getafe are currently fifth - level on points with fourth-placed Sociedad and a point ahead of sixth-placed Atletico Madrid - but both Sociedad and Atletico are in action on Sunday, and it would not be a surprise to see Jose Bordalas's side enter this match in sixth spot.
The Madrid-based outfit only just missed out on the top four last season as they finished fifth but another impressive campaign to date has left them in the argument for a Champions League spot at this stage.
© Reuters
Espanyol, meanwhile, picked up a huge victory over Alaves on Saturday, recording a 2-0 success on home soil courtesy of goals from Bernardo Espinosa and Wu Lei.
The Catalan outfit are still bottom of the table but are now level on points with 19th-placed Leganes and just two points behind 18th-placed Mallorca. Celta Vigo in 17th, meanwhile, are just three points ahead of Espanyol.
The White and Blues have not played outside of Spain's top flight since the 1993-94 campaign, while they finished seventh in La Liga last term, picking up an impressive 53 points in the process.
It would be a huge surprise if they were relegated this season but 15 defeats and just five wins from 28 matches is an indication of their troubles throughout the 2019-20 campaign.
Espanyol have not beaten Getafe in the league since November 2017, meanwhile, and suffered a 3-0 defeat when they last travelled to the capital side in December 2018.
Getafe La Liga form: WLLWDL
Getafe form (all competitions): WLLWDL
Espanyol La Liga form: WDLDLW
Espanyol form (all competitions): LLWDLW
Team News
© Reuters
Getafe will be without the services of central defender Xabier Etxeita through suspension, while Filip Manojlovic is again expected to miss out with a back problem.
Nemanja Maksimovic, Jaime Mata and Mauro Arambarri are all back from bans of their own, though, and the trio are expected to return to the starting XI for Tuesday's fixture.
Mata should join Jorge Molina in the final third, while Maksimovic and Arambarri are expected to feature in midfield as Bordalas prepares to shuffle his pack from the defeat at Granada.
As for Espanyol, Sebastien Corchia is still unavailable due to a knee injury, but first-choice goalkeeper Diego Lopez is back from a suspension and should return.
The Catalan outfit's squad is in good shape heading into the contest, and it would not be a surprise to see the bulk of the XI that started against Alaves take to the field here.
Wu Lei, who is currently being linked with Wolverhampton Wanderers, should again feature in the final third alongside Jonathan Calleri, with Adri Embarba also keeping his spot.
Getafe possible starting lineup:
Soria; Suarez, Dakonam, Cabaco, Nyom; Etebo, Arambarri, Maksimovic, Cucurella; Mata, Molina
Espanyol possible starting lineup:
Diego Lopez; J Lopez, Espinosa, Cabrera, Vila; Melendo, David Lopez, Roca, Embarba; Calleri, Wu Lei
We say: Getafe 2-1 Espanyol
Espanyol picked up a strong result against Alaves on their return to action, but Getafe will be much stronger than against Granada due to the return of three key players. We are expecting a tight match in the Spanish capital but fancy the home side to have enough to pick up all three points to boost their top-four challenge.
Matt Law
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 Getafe win with a probability of 48.89%. A draw had a probability of 26.9% and a win for Espanyol had a probability of 24.25%.
The most likely scoreline for a Getafe win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.63%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.75%) and 2-1 (8.97%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.54%), while for a Espanyol win it was 0-1 (8.78%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 9.5% likelihood.
