“The Two Wounded”: Barcelona and Madrid hope to raise morale in La Liga before the European decision

After Barcelona lost the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals to Atletico Madrid, German coach Hansi Flick faces a dilemma before the Spanish League derby against Espanyol on Saturday in the 31st stage.

With the league champion seven points behind Real Madrid, second in the standings, Flick may be tempted to make a wide rotation before Tuesday’s decisive second leg away from home against Atletico, where his team trails 0-2.
Real Madrid, led by Alvaro Arbeloa, will host Girona on Friday, and may reduce the difference to four points if it wins, which will make Flick’s decision more difficult.
The royal team is also suffering after losing to Bayern Munich 1-2 in the Champions League, but it enjoys a longer time interval between the Girona match and the second leg of the confrontation in Bavaria next Wednesday.
“We also have a derby three days after Saturday, our next match, and it is also important for us to win,” Flick said.
He added, “We will see, we will analyze everything, and what options are available to us.”
The worst case scenario would be to suffer their first league loss at Camp Nou since its reopening, and then be eliminated from the Champions League anyway in the Spanish capital.
With the league Clasico against Real Madrid approaching on May 10, Flick is keen to maintain Barcelona’s lead, but the Champions League may take priority.
Several players who remained reserves for most of the season, such as Uruguayan Ronald Araujo, Mark Casado and Swede Ronnie Bardagji, may enter the squad to face Espanyol, which is going through a period of sharp decline.
Midfielder Pedri Gonzalez is considered an essential element for Barcelona, ​​but he left at halftime in the loss to Atletico due to a minor physical problem.
Flick said, “Pedri was suffering from some problems. They are not major problems, but in this situation we need him in the next stage, so we made the decision to take him off the field.”
Flick hopes that Dutch midfielder Frankie de Jong will be ready for the second leg against Atletico, after he returned to training this week following a hamstring injury.
De Jong has a chance to join the team’s roster to face Espanyol, while Barcelona can also draw optimism from Gavi’s performance as a substitute against Atletico.
This could give the 21-year-old additional playing minutes at the weekend, as he continues to regain his fitness after a long absence due to injury. “Gavi played a great game,” Flick said.
In turn, after a strong start to the season, coach Manolo Gonzalez’s team failed to achieve any victory during the year 2026, which began with a 2-0 loss at home to Barcelona, ​​which launched a series of negative results.
The streak of 13 consecutive matches without a win (5 draws and 8 losses) is Espanyol’s worst streak since 2009 (14 matches).
The team is no longer able to score points, otherwise it will lose the competition for a European seat for next season.

Defense dilemma
Real Madrid needs to win against Girona, but without much effort to maintain the fitness of its stars before a very difficult match against Bayern Munich in the task of returning to the Bavarian giant.
Among the few positives was the return of Brazilian Eder Militao to scoring after recovering from injury, in addition to Englishman Jude Billingham getting useful playing minutes, but Los Blancos’ defensive suffering continued, after the team conceded goals for the seventh consecutive match in the league.
Arbeloa’s team achieved only one clean sheet at home in the league this year (winning 6 times and losing once), which suggests that the confrontation against Girona may not be easy.
Atletico Madrid will visit Sevilla on Saturday, and Argentine coach Diego Simeone will certainly rest a number of his key players.
In recent weeks, Simeone has focused on the cup competition, with his team occupying fourth place in the league, and seemed unthreatened, with Real Betis, who is in fifth place, 12 points away.