(Football news) Due to their challenging season thus far, the Yellow Submarine are presently tied on points (19) with 14th-place Mallorca in the standings, sitting in 15th place before this weekend’s match.  

Though they have been in the top seven in the last four La Liga seasons, Villarreal has struggled this year and is now in 15th place. Last season, the team finished fifth in La Liga.

After playing 20 league games this season, the Yellow Submarine have won five, drawn four, and lost eleven of them, earning 19 points and sitting just four points above the relegation zone.

Marcelino is the team’s third permanent manager of the campaign, with Quique Setien and Pacheta both losing their jobs due to poor results, but the 58-year-old, who is in his second spell as head coach of the club, has also found it difficult to produce consistent results.

Villarreal have bad a poor start to 2024, losing each of their three matches in all competitions; two of those have come in the league, going down 3-1 to Valencia and 3-0 to Las Palmas, while they were shocked in the last-32 stage of the Copa del Rey by third-tier outfit Unionistas.

The team are in the knockout round of the Europa League, though, and it seems almost certain that they will need to win that competition this season to secure European football for next term.

Mallorca, meanwhile, will enter this match in impressive form, losing just one of their last 10 matches in all competitions, which was a 1-0 defeat away to Real Madrid at the start of the year.

Javier Aguirre’s side have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, recording a 1-0 win over Tenerife on Tuesday evening, but they were held to a 1-1 draw by Celta Vigo in the league last time out, with the result leaving them in 14th position in the table on 19 points.

Mallorca have been the draw specialists in Spain’s top flight this season alongside Real Betis, having shared the points on 10 occasions, and they have only won three La Liga games in 2023-24.

Too many draws have prevented them from moving up the division, but they have not lost in La Liga to a team other than Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid since the start of November.

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