La Liga 2025-2026: Alaves-Barcelona, the likely lineups.
Wednesday of great excitement for La Liga, with four matches of great weight for the standings of Spain’s top league. Barcelona, already champions after clinching the title against Real Madrid, visits a penultimate Alaves but dreaming of salvation with as many as five teams just two points ahead of it in the standings. Among them is Mallorca, which is expected to travel to the field of Getafe, which is still dreaming of the Europa League. Both matches will start at 9:30 p.m.
The fight not to be relegated has been the common thread in recent weeks of La Liga. Alaves, the footballing expression of the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, has experienced a razor’s edge finish to the season: just two days ago the Basques were hosting Athletic Bilbao in a derby that was crucial to break away from the red zone, while in the previous weeks they had inflicted a heavy defeat on Mallorca itself, beaten 2-1 in Mendizorrota in what had become a genuine direct clash for survival.
Mallorca, for its part, has experienced a similarly tormented path. Demichelis’ team, after losing at Alavés paying for a too fragile start to the second half, had then found a precious 1-0 success at home to Girona thanks to Samu Costa’s goal at 43′, a result that allowed the Rossoneri to breathe and to present themselves to this Wednesday with a few more points than their direct competitors.
Barcelona also comes to this challenge with a European journey now over behind them: the blaugrana, eliminated from the Champions League, focused on the league with great determination, building a lead that led them to the title. In the last league away match, the one at Osasuna, Flick had already chosen an experimental eleven compared to the last outings, with Gavi replacing De Jong in the midfield and Bardghji starting in the three-quarter. Wednesday night, as champions already crowned, the German coach seems intent on giving space to some lesser-used elements, while maintaining a certainly competitive set-up.
The probable lineups
Alaves (5-3-2): Sivera; Perez, Otto, Tenaglia, Parada, Rebbach; Blanco, Ibanez, Alena; Martinez, Diabate. Coach: Quique.
Barcelona (4-2-3-1): J.Garcia; Kounde, E.Garcia, Martin, Cancelo; Pedri, De Jong; Rashford, Olmo, Fermin; Ferran. Coach: Flick.
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