LA LIGA: The Ultra previews the opening weekend of the new La Liga season as Mallorca host Barcelona on Saturday with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
MALLORCA V BARCELONA
6.30pm: The new La Liga season continues on Betdaq Betting Exchange, and the Champions are back in action on Saturday! Mallorca host Barcelona with Hansi Flick’s side aiming to land back-to-back titles in what should be another fascinating season. Real Madrid have changed manager and brought in Xabi Alnoso – I wouldn’t say he had a dramatic impact on how Real Madrid played during the FIFA Club World Cup during the summer, but now he will have had longer with the players. From a Barcelona point of view, they finished last season with the best attacking figure and the best defensive figure – they just need more of the same!
They have also had the benefit of having the summer off with FIFA’s rules meaning they didn’t qualify for the Club World Cup. That definitely needs to be looked into going forward – the fact that Barcelona and Liverpool weren’t there lower the quality of the tournament. Barcelona had a massive wobble in their 2024/25 season where they managed just one win from eight La Liga games starting in November and ending in January – that one win came here against Mallorca! They hammered them 5-1; additionally I’d be looking at that run thinking Barcelona could easily improve this season too. Real Madrid have a lot of work to do.
As you would expect, Barcelona come into the game as the odds on favourites. Barcelona are trading 1.52 with Mallorca 6.9 and the draw is 4.8 at the time of writing. I have to say, I was very surprised to see Barcelona trading as big as 1.52 when I clicked into the market – I was expecting to see sub 1.5. Mallorca finished in mid-table last season, but they were very flattered by that finishing spot. They only managed an average xG created of 1.06 which was the fourth worst attacking figure in La Liga. The gulf in class between the sides here is massive; where Mallorca over-performed the most was actually at the back.
They finished the season with an average xG created of 1.48 which was in the bottom five defensive figures. They got away with this though, because their actual goals conceded average was 1.16 – which effectively cancelled out the fact they were so poor going forward. They could actually really struggle this season, and I’d have Barcelona much shorter. I’m keeping stakes low at the start of the season because it’s the opening weekend – I do feel we’re getting a lot of value here though so it’s my best bet of the weekend. I’m happy with three points, but a few weeks into the season this type of bet would be a Five Star NAP in my opinion.
The Ultra Says:
Three points win Barcelona to beat Mallorca at 1.52 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/LLMaBa
