Their last chance, Barcelona need to win and face Las Palmas with this starting lineup

This Thursday Las Palmas and Barcelona will close the 19th La Liga matchday. After a two-week break for Christmas and New Year, the tournament resumed on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, with wins for Real Madrid (1-0 vs Real Mallorca) and Girona (4-3 vs Atlético Madrid), which allowed them to remain at the top of the standings.

Those results put more pressure on Los Blaugranas, who know they need a win to avoid falling too far from the top of the table. For now, Los Merengues and Los Tozudos have 48 points, while the Catalan side share third place with Atlético Madrid, both with 38 points. Should they beat Las Palmas, they will reduce that gap to 7 points.

However, it will not be an easy task. First of all because Las Palmas have proven to be a difficult team and are having a great performance in the season: they are in 10th place in the standings and if they win they will reach the Conference League qualification zone. In addition, Barcelona have not shown a convincing level in the last 2023 games, which caused criticism to the players and the coach.

For this Thursday's match at the Gran Canaria Stadium, Xavi Hernandez decided that the starting lineup will be: Iñaki Peña; Joao Cancelo, Ronald Araujo, Jules Koundé, Alex Balde; Frenkie De Jong, Ilkay Gundogan, Sergi Roberto; Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, Ferrán Torres. In addition, the substitutes will be Diego Kochen, Ander Astralaga, Andreas Christensen, Hector Fort, Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez, Oriol Romeu, Joao Felix, Lamine Yamal and Vitor Roque.

Can they make it?

Las Palmas have 25 points and are 3 points behind Real Betis, who are currently in last place in the qualification zone for international competitions. Therefore, if they win this Thursday against Barcelona, they will reach that place. Coach Francisco Javier Garcia Pimienta chose this XI: Alvaro Valles; Alex Suarez, Saul Coco, Mika Marmol, Sergi Cardona; Javier Muñoz, Alberto Moleiro, Kirian Rodriguez, Maximo Perrone, Munir El Haddadi; Sandro Ramirez.