Barcelona begin the defence of their La Liga title on Saturday with a trip to Son Moix to take on Jagoba Arrasate’s Mallorca side. The Catalans have had a very good pre-season, and they will hope to translate that form into their competitive campaign, which is about to get underway.
Hansi Flick has not had an ideal preparation for the match, given that he has been unable to know whether he will have summer signings Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford available. Fortunately, Barcelona have now managed to register both players, although the Catalans will not be able to count on Wojciech Szczesny, Hector Fort, Gerard Martin and Roony Bardghji for the trip to Son Moix.
Outside of these issues, Flick has had doubts about two positions: right-back and attacking midfield. However, these have been clarified, with Sport reporting that Jules Kounde and Fermin Lopez are expected to be preferred to Eric Garcia and Dani Olmo respectively
As for Mallorca, summer signing Pablo Torre is set to face the club he left several weeks ago. The young midfielder is expected to start in the number 10 role behind Vedat Muriqi, with Takuma Asano and Sergi Darder either side of him. Arrasate has also made a change in goal compared to last season, with Leo Roman now being the no.1 at Son Moix.
Barcelona will hope to replicate last season’s Son Moix result
It will be very interesting to see how this match plays out. Barcelona are favourites, and they will hope for a similar result to last season, when they won 5-1 courtesy of goals from Ferran Torres, Raphinha (x2), Frenkie de Jong and Pau Victor. However, Mallorca will be determined to make life difficult for the Catalans, as they did in the reverse fixture in April.
