Next up for Barcelona: Leganes at Camp Nou. That should be another three points for the reigning champions. Mallorca will certainly hope so, with Leganes two points below them in the relegation zone. Mallorca meanwhile go to Villarreal. Both of those games will be played on Tuesday, the matches coming thick and fast now. Speaking of which, we’ll hopefully see you here tomorrow as Real Madrid look to close the gap at the top back to two points by beating Eibar. Thanks for reading this MBM!
FULL TIME: Mallorca 0-4 Barcelona
Suarez nearly makes it five, but come on, have a heart. He can’t force the ball home from a tight angle on the left, and Mallorca are spared the indignity of shipping a fifth. Not that it matters. Barca go five clear at the top, at least for one night, while Mallorca stay in the relegation zone. But while Barca were deserved winners, and scored some lovely goals, the hosts didn’t play like a relegation side tonight, no matter what the scoreline tells you.
Updated
90 min +4: The four goals don’t flatter Barcelona. But Mallorca don’t deserve to lose by four. Does that make any sense whatsoever? It surely must.
GOAL! Mallorca 0-4 Barcelona (Messi 90+3)
Messi wanders across the face of the Mallorca box, in the insouciant George Best style, drops three defenders, and lashes a shot into the top right. Easy as that.
90 min +1: But in the first of five added minutes, Salibur curls a cross in from the right and finds Abdon, who heads wastefully wide from ten yards. He should have scored. Mallorca have been beaten fair and square by the better team ... but they’ve had several chances to score, and will wonder how they’ve passed them all up.
90 min: Gamez goes on a power run down the middle. He should have a dig, why not, but there’s to be no spectacular end to a 60-yard run. He feeds Salibur on the right, and the move quickly peters out.
89 min: Barca stroke it around as the clock does its thing.
87 min: Lago Junior twists gracefully down the inside left, turns infield and curls a fine effort inches wide of the top-right corner.
86 min: Rodriguez clips Rakitic’s heel and is booked. He’ll miss the game at Villarreal on Tuesday. Meanwhile De Jong is replaced by Firpo.
84 min: A double change by Mallorca, as Salva Sevilla and Budimir make way for Salibur and Abdon.
82 min: Suarez should make it four, latching onto a loose ball and driving at an increasingly tired Mallorca defence. He glides infield from the left and blazes wildly over, just as we all expected a delicate chip.
80 min: Another lengthy pause for a VAR check. Was Alba offside? No. We play on.
GOAL! Mallorca 0-3 Barcelona (Alba 79)
A refreshed Messi dinks a ball down the inside-left channel to release Alba, who reaches the box, gives Reina the eyes towards the far corner, and threads it into the bottom left instead.
77 min: It’s the second cooling break of the evening.
76 min: The excellent Kubo drives down the left and wins a corner off Pique. Ter Stegen flaps it clear. Pozo sends it back, a first-time curler towards the bottom left. Just wide, and the keeper had it covered anyway. On another day, Mallorca could have plundered a goal or two.
75 min: Barca allow Mallorca to knock it around the middle of the park. The hosts go nowhere, and the clock ticks on.
73 min: Alba is booked for a cynical bodycheck on Pozo, who was racing down the right touchline, about to be sent into a lot of space by Baba. Shame, because that was a nice flowing move by the hosts, Kubo involved as he has been in most of Mallorca’s best moments.
71 min: A double change for Barcelona. Sergio Roberto is replaced at right back by Semedo, while Arthur comes on for Busquets in the midfield.
69 min: Corner for Mallorca, out on the left. Salva Sevilla sends it in with a lot of whip. Pique is forced to slash out for another corner. That one leads to head tennis in the six-yard box. Raillo waits to head home at the far post, but Rakitic gets in the road. A third corner, which leads to nowt. It’s not as though Mallorca have been without chances this evening.
67 min: But Mallorca aren’t out of this quite yet. Lago Junior sashays down the left and gets the better of Pique. But his cross-cum-shot doesn’t reach Budimir, six yards out, and Barca hack clear.
66 min: Messi opens up Mallorca with a pass down the left channel. Suarez cuts back from the byline, but can’t tee up Messi or Braithwaite. Rakitic tries to revive the move, and Messi ends it with a wild slice from a tight angle. After a fallow period, Barca are now pressing for the third that will put an end to this once and for all.
64 min: Barca ping it about for a bit. Now it’s Mallorca’s turn to misplace their mojo.
62 min: Fran Gamez and Sergio Roberto clank together in an aerial challenge. The Barca man comes off the worst. He’s only winded, though, and up again soon enough.
60 min: Messi plays a cute ball around the corner to find Braithwaite on the penalty spot. Braithwate shakes off Pozo and flicks towards the bottom left. Reina brilliantly deflects wide of goal. From the resulting corner, Messi fires across the face of goal from the left. Suarez can’t flick home, and coming in from the right, the full debutant Araujo scuffs a shot onto the base of the post and away!
58 min: And so they make another change, replacing Griezmann with Suarez. Mallorca meanwhile replace Pedraza with Baba.
56 min: A couple of corners are wasted by Mallorca. Then Kubo is sent racing down the right, but his cross can’t find Budimir in the middle. Barca haven’t found their rhythm at all since the restart.
54 min: A pause as some buffoon runs onto the pitch. This is quite the scene seeing there’s no crowd. The prissy policy of not televising this sort of carry-on means we’re light on details, but all the players seem to find it amusing enough. In the distance, someone’s carted off down the tunnel.
52 min: Busquets tries to send Alba clear down the left. He’d have achieved his aim, too, had the ref not clumsily got in the way. The whistle goes for a drop ball. Busquets has the good grace to find the situation amusing. Many wouldn’t.
51 min: Barca take the second-half sting out of the game by stroking it around the back awhile. Clever game management.
49 min: Barca are still in the dressing room. Lago Junior lifts a ball into the mixer and Pique is forced to clang a header out for a corner. From the set piece, Rodriguez whips in from the left, but with Budimir lurking, Pique sends a header the other way up the pitch. This is a fine start to the second period by the hosts.
48 min: Close again! Kubo dribbles down the right and shifts the ball inside for Rodriguez, who drives further. He plays a pass across the face of the Barca box for Budimir, who unleashes a shot of great fury towards the bottom left. It’s beaten Ter Stegen, but flies an inch or two wide of the post.
47 min: A lot of space for Rodriguez in the middle of the park. He screams for the pass that would set him free on goal. Kubo tries to oblige, but overcooks it and the ball races through to Ter Stegen. So close to the goal the hosts require to change the complexion of this match.
Mallorca get the second half underway. A reminder that both teams can make up to five substitutions, and probably will, so a fair chunk of the rest of this MBM will be taken up by admin. Hey, I don’t make the rules. On this subject: Mallorca have made two half-time changes, replacing left-back Sastre with Fran Gamez, and sending on left-winger Lago Junior in place of Hernandez. Barcelona meanwhile have replaced the opening goalscorer Vidal with Rakitic.
Half-time entertainment. This is a marvellous, bittersweet tale, wonderfully told. Please don’t miss out on it.
HALF TIME: Mallorca 0-2 Barcelona
Barca have been the better side ... but Mallorca have had their moments. The champions should open up a five-point lead over Real Madrid from this position, but if Mallorca get the next goal, we might have a game on our hands. We beg you: go nowhere!
45 min +4: Messi nearly gets on the end of a one-two with De Jong. Had he taken down the return pass, sent along the inside-right channel, he’d have been one on one with Reina and Barca would likely be three goals to the good now. So close to putting this game to bed.
45 min +2: Messi dribbles hard down the inside-right channel and makes it into the box. A thrust of elegant danger. But just as he’s shaping to shoot, Raillo slides in to take the ball off his toe. That is a quite spectacular intervention by the centre-back, perfectly timed and executed.
45 min +1: In the first of four extra minutes, Kubo crosses from the right. Budimir, who has two goals against Barca to his name already this season, flashes a header wide left. He should have worked Ter Stegen for sure; he probably should have scored, if we’re being honest with ourselves.
45 min: Messi drives at a furiously backpedalling Mallorca defence. He lays off to Alba on his left. Alba clanks a heavy touch, perhaps intended as a first-time pass to Griezmann, straight into touch. Goal kick.
43 min: Vidal goes in the book after standing on Rodriguez’s foot. He doesn’t bother complaining. Anyway, what do you reckon about this virtual audience? Charles Antaki’s report is in. “The CGI crowd is unobjectionable enough. Might be more engaging if they included people wandering up and down the steps, some balancing drinks in both hands, others looking for their seats etc.” It’d be quite nice if one bellicose sprite was clearly paying no attention whatsoever to the match, instead flicking Vs at the little computer people in the adjacent block. Get on it, boffins.
41 min: Messi was possibly trying to set himself up in the build-up to that goal, nudging his header into space. But Braithwaite wasn’t hanging about, and we’ll never know for sure.
39 min: There’s a long VAR check, as there’s a suggestion the ball had grazed Griezmann’s arm during the penalty-box bounce-a-round. But there’s nothing in it. The referee whistles to restart the game, and the champs are two up.
GOAL! Mallorca 0-2 Barcelona (Braithwaite 37)
Yep, momentum regained. And how! A melee in the box. Messi goes in for a header, the ball squirting towards Braithwaite on the penalty spot. Braithwaite immediately lashes a rising right-footed shot into the top left. That’s his first league goal in a Barca shirt!
36 min: But now it’s all Barca again, as Sergio Roberto busies himself on the right and sends in a cross that sparks a game of head tennis. Eventually Salva Sevilla gets the ball away, but only just. Momentum regained?
35 min: That break came at a good time for Barca, with Mallorca beginning to ask some questions. The hosts have done extremely well to slow Barcelona’s early momentum.
34 min: Sippy cups drained and discarded, we go again.
32 min: Kubo thrashes the free kick low and hard, around the wall. It’s straight at Ter Stegen, but hit with such venom that the keeper can only scoop it up and away in a very inelegant fashion. Barca hack clear, and it’s time for drinks.
31 min: London Buses dept. The next foul comes along in short order, as Vidal clatters into Rodriguez, just to the right of the Barca D. This represents a very good opportunity for the hosts.
29 min: The first foul of the game! It’s Alba on Pozo. Not often you have to wait so long to hear the ref’s shrill whistle.
Updated
28 min: Kubo flicks cutely down the right to send Pozo on a touchline skitter. Pozo crosses deep in the hope of finding Budimir, but Pique clears. Marbella come straight back at them, though, Hernandez trying a snapshot amid a penalty-box muddle. That’s blocked, but Kubo has another go. His pea-roller is claimed by Ter Stegen without fuss or ceremony.
26 min: The first lull of the game. Drinks break soon?
24 min: That’s given Mallorca succour. Sastre goes bowling down the left, cuts infield and shapes to shoot. But then he pauses to think, and there’s no time for any of that nonsense. Vidal comes across and block-tackles him. Sortie over.
22 min: And yet they could so easily be level. Kubo skedaddles dangerously down the right and glides inside, sashaying past Araujo with ease. He whips a fierce shot towards the top left, but Ter Stegen, at full extend, palms the ball around the post. What a run, what a shot, what a save. Great football all round, and a warning to Barca that they might yet not have it all their own way.
20 min: Messi slices Mallorca open with a precision pass down the right for Sergio Roberto, who has been rampant since the get-go. But his low cross is behind both Griezmann and Braithwaite. Mallorca are hanging on.
18 min: Messi slides a ball down the inside-right channel for Vidal, who is racing into a lot of space. But for once the great man’s radar is wonky, his pass way off, and Raillo is able to clear.
16 min: Mallorca stream forward, Hernandez and Budimir leading the charge. The ball’s sent wide right towards Kubo, who diddles Alba but can’t get past Griezmann. The resulting corner, Mallorca’s first of the game, is a complete non-event.
14 min: Messi slips a ball down the right for the incessant Sergio Roberto. A low cross leads to a melee in the middle, but despite the best efforts of Griezmann and Braithwaite, there’s no shot on goal. Mallorca clear with great desperation.
12 min: Messi nutmegs Pozo to pass to Griezmann down the left. Griezmann pulls the ball back for Messi, who had kept running. Messi takes a whack. It’s deflected out for another wasted corner. Barca are really pushing to get their second goal. It feels like it’s coming soon.
11 min: Messi sends De Jong scampering down the inside-right channel. De Jong shuttles the ball wider for Sergio Roberto, whose low cross is nearly met by Griezmann in the middle. Not quite, but a game of bagatelle ends in a corner for Barca. Nothing comes of the set piece, but that was another big chance for Barca.
9 min: Kubo tries to make amends for his early error by tearing down the right at great speed. He’s got Alba on the back foot, but his cross is no good. Cleared. He comes again, testing Alba once more. This time Alba sticks to him and blocks his attempted pass towards Budimir. Much better from the highly-rated Real Madrid loanee.
7 min: An awful lot of room for Sergio Roberto out on the right. He crosses low. Griezmann dummies for his strike partner, just to the left of goal, ten yards out. Braithwaite fizzes a low shot well wide of the left-hand post. He should have made it two.
6 min: Barcelona are totally dominant, a goal up already, and Messi has yet to feature. This could be a long evening for Mallorca.
4 min: Barcelona pass it around the back awhile, just because they can. Mallorca, no doubt shocked by that early blow, are chasing shadows at the minute.
GOAL! Mallorca 0-1 Barcelona (Vidal 2)
After 65 seconds, the champions take the lead! Kubo is robbed by De Jong, 25 yards from his own goal. The ball’s sent wide left for Alba, who crosses. Vidal stoops and guides a header into the bottom left, giving Reina no chance. What a start!
Barca get the ball rolling! An early touch for the 21-year-old Araujo, who is making his full debut tonight. He’s played once before for the Barca first team, coming on as sub against Sevilla before getting himself sent off after a 14-minute cameo. Hope he has a better day today.
The teams are out! A lot of noise at the Estadi de Son Moix - or the Visit Mallorca Estadi as it’s been re-branded - though at the moment that’s all down to the unnecessarily ear-splitting PA system. There’ll be some altogether more soothing Fifa 2020 sonics, plus full stands in the virtual style, when we kick off. But first a minute’s silence for the souls lost to Covid-19.
Some pre-match reading ... courtesy of the Good Doctor and one of the Guardian’s most famous readers, now a director at Mallorca.
Kit and caboodle. Mallorca play in red shirts, so ...
... Barca will turn out in third-choice mint green.
There was some good news for relegation-haunted Mallorca earlier today. Villarreal won 1-0 at Celta Vigo thanks to a late goal by Manu Trigueros. Celta’s defeat means they remain just one point ahead of Mallorca in 17th. Should Mallorca cause an upset this evening by taking all three points, they’d bust out of the relegation zone, leapfrogging Celta and Eibar into the relative safety of 16th. But worst case, they’ll not lose any ground on Celta after a weekend they’ll have realistically written off. A free hit, then.
The big team news: Lionel Messi has fully recovered from his thigh strain and starts; Luis Suarez isn’t quite back up to speed yet, though, and only makes the bench. But with each team allowed five subs, there’s a fair chance Suarez will get a run-out in the second half. Meanwhile young Uruguayan centre-back Ronald Araujo is selected ahead of Samuel Umtiti, who like Suarez isn’t 100 percent fit.
Mallorca will pin their hopes on leading scorer Ante Budimir, who has nine league goals to his name this season, two of them coming at Camp Nou. That’s one more than Antonie Griezmann has managed, but two fewer than Suarez and a whole ten behind Messi. Another stat to illustrate the gap between first and 18th: midfield kingpin Salva Sevilla has made 1170 successful passes so far this season, Mallorca’s only man to reach four figures; Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique have both clocked up over 1800.
The teams
Real Mallorca: Reina, Raillo, Valjent, Sastre, Pozo, Pedraza, Dani Rodriguez, Kubo, Salva Sevilla, Budimir, Cucho Hernandez.
Subs: Parera, Sene, Xisco Campos, Abdon, Lago Junior, Baba, Gamez, Salibur, Trajkovski, Chavarria, Sedlar, Febas.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Pique, Araujo, Jordi Alba, Busquets, De Jong, Vidal, Messi, Braithwaite, Griezmann.
Subs: Neto, Inaki Pena, Semedo, Junior, Umtiti, Monchu, Rakitic, Arthur, Riqui Puig, Collado, Suarez, Ansu Fati.
Updated
Preamble
As La Liga resumes, reigning champions Barcelona are in pole position. They’re two points ahead of Real Madrid as they pursue title number 27. Lionel Messi has recovered from a thigh strain picked up in training last week, while Luis Suarez is available again after his January knee surgery. By contrast, tonight’s opponents Mallorca, promoted last season, are in a relegation scrap this time around. Barca saw them off with ease, 5-2, at Camp Nou back in December; they’ve scored 14 goals in their last three meetings with the Balearic Islanders. This is surely only going to end one way.
But there’s always hope in football. Mallorca were on a decent run before lockdown, with two wins and a draw in their last four matches. Barca, meanwhile, will still be smarting from a 2-0 loss in the clasico back at the start of March, and they’ve only won one away match in the league since the start of December.
In fact, Barca’s away form this campaign has been of the eyebrow-bothering variety. Only 18 of their 63 league goals this season have been scored on the road. They’ve lost at Bilbao, Granada, Levante, Valencia and Real Madrid, and their performances at the only two teams below 18th-placed Mallorca haven’t been much better: a 2-2 draw at desperate neighbours Espanyol and a come-from-behind 2-1 win at Leganes. Just five wins from 13 on the road for the champs, one hell of a contrast with their home record of 40 points from 42. Their goal difference at home is +33; their tally on the road is -1.
None of this stops Barca being short-priced favourites for this match. They should stretch their lead at the top to five points before Real Madrid play Eibar tomorrow. But Mallorca’s top scorer Ante Budimir scored twice at Camp Nou in November, and if he adds to his nine-goal haul early on this evening, we could have ourselves a game. It kicks off at 9pm UK time, 10pm in Palma de Mallorca. It’s on!
Updated
