FC Barcelona (1st, 55pts) vs RCD Mallorca (14th, 24pts)*
*Standings at the time of writing
Competition/Round: 2025-26 La Liga, Matchday 23
Barcelona Outs & Doubts: Gavi, Pedri, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen (out)
Mallorca Outs & Doubts: Marash Kumbulla, Takuma Asano (doubt)
Barcelona Form Guide: WWWWW
Mallorca Form Guide: LLWLW
Date/Time: Saturday, February 7, 2026, 4.15pm CET/WAT (Barcelona & Nigeria), 3.15pm GMT (UK), 10.15am ET, 7.15am PT (USA), 8.45pm IST (India)
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Referee: Alejandro Quintero González
VAR: Javier Iglesias
Villanueva
How to watch on TV: ESPN Deportes (USA), Not Available (UK), SuperSport (Nigeria), Movistar (Spain), others
How to watch online: ESPN+ (USA), LaLigaTV (UK), FanCode (India), Movistar+ (Spain), others
Following a hard-fought win away to Albacete to book a spot in the Copa del Rey semi-finals, Barcelona return to La Liga action for a very important home game against Mallorca at the Greatest Stadium on Earth on Saturday afternoon.
Barça come into this one looking to extend their lead at the top of the table to four points for at least 24 hours before Real Madrid face what is always a tricky away game against Valencia on Sunday, and the Blaugrana will be looking to extend their winning streak in all competitions to six games before the first leg of the Cup semi-finals against Atlético Madrid next Thursday.
The Catalans will be favorites to beat a Mallorca side that will begin the weekend just two points above the relegation zone and have had an astonishingly confounding season given the depth of talent in their squad. Mallorca have improved as of late, winning two of their last three and have a striker in Vedat Muriqi who’s enjoying the best season of his career and has scored nine goals in the last nine games, while Jan Virgili has had a fantastic debut season in La Liga since leaving Barça last summer.
It is hard to understand how a team that is legitimately talented in every area of the squad can be so mediocre, but the two recent wins against Athletic Club and Sevilla suggest there might be a strong run of results coming that will finally quiet the relegation noise for a team that just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I am completely ignoring Mallorca’s position in the table and I’m looking at them like a legit threat to steal a result at Camp Nou on Saturday. Muriqi is a terrible matchup for Barça’s center-backs with his size and physicality, Virgili will provide a tough test for an underperforming Jules Kounde, and their defense is finally healthy after dealing with injuries to important players at the back.
Mallorca’s main goal will be to defend and stay in the game while Virgili and Muriqi try to create danger on the counter and in set pieces, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them making this a very tight and competitive contest.
The first meeting between the two teams came in the opening weekend of the season all the away back in August, and Barça won a very strange game in which Mallorca had two players sent off midway through the first half and Ferran Torres scored a controversial goal while a Mallorca defender was lying on the floor with a head injury, and the Catalans were heavily criticized for not playing better and winning by more than the final three-goal margin against a 9-man Mallorca team that looked dead and buried for most of the match.
It’s really hard to expect Mallorca to be shown two red cards again, so they will naturally be more competitive. Barça have created a lot of chances in recent matches but their finishing has been abysmal, and they really need to be clinical in this one to avoid unnecessary drama in a game they need to win. There’s a real chance Real Madrid might drop points at Mestalla, so Barça must make sure they’ll be in a position to profit from a potential slip-up by Los Blancos.
Don’t be fooled by Mallorca’s position in the table. They are capable of playing much better, and Barça cannot take this for granted for a second.
Let’s dance.
POSSIBLE LINEUPS
Barcelona (4-3-3): Joan; Kounde, Cubarsí, Eric, Balde; Fermín, De Jong, Olmo; Yamal, Ferran, Rashford
Mallorca (4-2-3-1): Román; Maffeo, Valjent, Lopez, Mojica; Mascarell, Samu; Sánchez, Darder, Virgili; Muriqi
PREDICTION
Mallorca are better than their position suggests and have all the tools to make things tough for Barça, but I still expect the home team to pick up a solid win: 3-1 to the good guys.
