Two sides in the middle of the La Liga table square off on Sunday, as Osasuna travel to the Iberostar Stadium to take on Mallorca.
Both teams find themselves on eight points from the first six matches of the campaign and come into the game on the back of defeats in the midweek round of fixtures.
Match preview
© Reuters
Following their promotion from the second tier last term, Mallorca had an impressive start to life back in the top flight, drawing 1-1 with Real Betis on the opening day before recording back-to-back wins.
Luis Garcia Plaza's men put their first three-point haul on the board as Fer Nino fired them to a 1-0 away win over Alaves, before they defeated fellow promoted side Espanyol by the same scoreline, with Dani Rodriguez getting on the scoresheet.
They were unable to extend a winning run though, losing 2-0 to Athletic Bilbao before earning a creditable goalless draw with Europa League champions Villarreal, but they now head into Sunday's match on the back of a heavy defeat.
Los Piratas travelled to take on league leaders Real Madrid, and Lee Kang-In drew the scoreline back to 2-1 to Los Blancos after early goals from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio, before the hosts ran riot, with Asensio completing a hat-trick, Benzema hitting a second and Isco netting a late goal to seal a dominant 6-1 win.
Garcia's men will be keen to put that thrashing behind them after an otherwise impressive start, and they will look to return to winning ways to climb back into the top half on Sunday.
Osasuna arrive having had a very similar start, with two victories, two draws and two defeats from the opening stretch.
After goalless draws with Espanyol and Celta Vigo, Jagoba Arrasate's side put their first victory on the board in dramatic fashion, as injury-time goals from Roberto Torres and David Garcia saw them overturn a deficit and defeat Cadiz 3-2 away from home.
That was followed by a disappointing 4-1 defeat to Valencia, before they bounced back with a 2-0 away win over Alaves, as Torres and Garcia again got on the scoresheet.
Los Rojillos were handed their second league defeat of the season last time out, as Kike's equaliser against Real Betis was followed by goals in the final 10 minutes from Juanmi and Willian Jose to see the visitors leave with a 3-1 victory.
Also looking to bounce back against a side they sit level on points with, Arrasate's side will arrive with their sights set on a third league win of the season.
- D
- W
- W
- L
- D
- L
- D
- D
- W
- L
- W
- L
Team News
Mallorca have a long injury list to deal with, as Antonio Raillo, Pablo Maffeo and Aleksander Sedlar are confined to the treatment room, while attacker Takefusa Kubo recently joined them as he picked up a knock against Real Madrid.
Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta and Franco Russo also remain doubts, with neither likely to return in time for Sunday's meeting.
Following his arrival from Valencia, attacker Lee Kang-In marked his first Mallorca start with an impressive goal against Real Madrid, and he will certainly remain in the starting XI, especially in the absence of Kubo.
Striker Fer Nino will hope to return to the starting XI, after he was an unused substitute in that game.
Osasuna have fewer selection concerns to deal with, although Kike Barja, Ante Budimir and Javier Ontiveros are all unlikely to feature after missing out on Thursday.
Arrasate should not make wholesale changes to his side, with the midfield trio of Darko Brasanac, Jon Moncayola and Lucas Torro set to remain untouched.
Kike will lead the line with renewed confidence after his equaliser last time out, taking his tally to two La Liga goals for the season so far.
Mallorca possible starting lineup:
Reina; Sastre, Valjent, Olivan, Costa; Baba, Sevilla; Ndiaye, Lee, Rodriguez; Nino
Osasuna possible starting lineup:
Herrera; Vidal, D Garcia, Hernandez, Sanchez; Brasanac, Moncayola, Torro; R Garcia, Kike, Torres
We say: Mallorca 1-1 Osasuna
With two sides squaring off after very similar starts, we cannot quite pick a winner, and expect them to cancel one another out to some extent.
While Mallorca's confidence may be hit by a thrashing last time out, we back them to rebound and avoid defeat on Sunday.
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 Osasuna win with a probability of 37.49%. A win for Mallorca had a probability of 32.15% and a draw had a probability of 30.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Osasuna win was 0-1 with a probability of 13.87%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (7.46%) and 1-2 (7.25%). The likeliest Mallorca win was 1-0 (12.54%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.49%). The actual scoreline of 2-3 was predicted with a 1.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Osasuna would win this match.
