Zinedine Zidane's men beat Celta Vigo in their game in hand on Wednesday night, which lifted them above Barca and back to the summit of the standings. That means that Luis Enrique's side head into the final day knowing that a win may not be enough for them to successfully defend the championship; the Catalan club may hold the head-to-head advantage over their Clasico rivals, but that will only come into play if the two teams finish with the same points tallies, which means Barca also need to rely on Malaga doing them a favour by getting the better of Madrid at La Rosaleda. Realistically, then, Barcelona's chances of winning the title are slim, but they must ensure they keep up their end of the bargain by emerging victorious at the Camp Nou on Sunday.
Eibar were pushing for the Europa League qualification spots until the last few weeks, but a dip in form means they can no longer reach next season's edition of the continent's secondary competition. A return of just one win in their last six matches has seen the Basque outfit fall behind the likes of Real Sociedad, Villarreal and Athletic Club in the table, although it is worth acknowledging the superb season they have had: Eibar remain one of the smallest clubs to have ever participated in the Spanish top flight, which makes their guaranteed top-half finish this term even more impressive.
Barcelona will be unable to call upon the services of Aleix Vidal (ankle) and Rafinha (knee), while Gerard Pique (illness), Jeremy Mathieu (ankle) and Javier Mascherano (thigh) will all be assessed before kick-off. Luis Enrique has relied heavily on his star-studded front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar this season and will probably need to again here, while Barcelona must be wary about leaving their opponents too much space on the counter-attack.
Eibar, meanwhile, will have to make do without Fran Rico (knee), Nano (thigh) and Antonio Luna (hamstring), while Takashi Inui has returned to Japan due to governmental obligations. Jose Luis Mendilibar tends to line his team up in a 4-2-3-1 formation and will do so again here, with Eibar set to pack men behind the ball in an attempt to make life as difficult as possible for Barcelona.
Barcelona are unlikely to win the league due to Madrid's commanding position at the top heading into the final day, but they will almost certainly beat Eibar to give themselves a chance. The odds are heavily in Barca's favour for this one, so it would be advisable to avoid the win market and focus on something different – one option, for example, would be a Barcelona triumph with both teams to score, while over 4.5 goals to be netted in total may also be worth exploring.
.png)
