Possibly inspiring further confidence of making it two straight home wins is Aguirre’s 100 per cent unbeaten rate in personal H2Hs with Alaves – despite him overseeing no clean sheets during those games!
Mallorca
Javier Aguirre’s record as Mallorca boss has been mixed so far, as he desperately tries to help the promoted Balearic outfit avoid an immediate relegation for the second time in three seasons. Just a four-point cushion separates Aguirre’s men from bottom side Alaves, so a victory for either side here could be crucial in deciding who stays up and who goes down. Just one side has scored in all three of Mallorca’s games under Aguirre’s stewardship so far, though he did win the only home game, which was an impressive win vs champions Atletico Madrid. Possibly inspiring further confidence of making it two straight home wins is Aguirre’s 100 per cent unbeaten rate in personal H2Hs with Alaves – despite him overseeing no clean sheets during those games!
Alaves
Relegation-threatened Alaves also have a brand-new manager in the dugout, with Julio Velazquez taking the reins earlier in the month. Both of his games in charge so far have been settled by a single goal, but a 1-0 win last time out served as a confidence-boosting end to an seven-game winless run, though no matter what happens here they still cannot end this round outside the bottom three. Fixing Alaves’ away form looks like a much tougher task, as you must go back to October to find their last away league win. A trip to Majorca is not Alavés’ idea of a holiday either, as they have never won a top-flight away H2H, while their sole competitive victory in an away H2H came way back in 1974/75!
A Vedat Muriqi penalty was enough to give Mallorca their only league win across the last nine games, but he has also been booked in 36 per cent of his league appearances. Meanwhile, Joselu has scored crucial goals in Alavés’ only three league wins since the start of November, and bagged the final goal in their last H2H victory. The last eight competitive H2Hs have produced under 2.5 goals.