Espanyol will travel to Mallorca on Saturday with a spot in the quarter-finals on the line at the 2021-22 Copa del Rey.

Los Pirates scored two second-half goals to defeat Eibar in their round of 32 fixture earlier this month, while Periquitos overcame a late equaliser from Ponferradina, advancing on penalties.

Match preview

For the first time since 2012-13, Mallorca have advanced to the last 16 of what many consider to be the most prestigious national cup trophy in the world.

More often than not, Luis Garcia Plaza has seen his players start slowly and fall apart when conceding first, so to see them fight back in their previous cup tie and win was an encouraging sign for the 49-year-old coach from Madrid.

We should get an idea of what this team are made of in this game, as they are facing a side in the Spanish top flight, which they did not have to do in the opening three rounds of this tournament.

This team have been bouncing around from the first to the second tier of Spanish football in recent years in what has been a tough transition for the club since the American takeover from Robert Sarver, owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns.

Home field has not been kind to them so far in their return to the top flight, failing to score in three straight La Liga matches played at Mallorca Stadium, with their last victory coming in early October 1-0 over Levante.

Since November, they have only scored one first-half goal in all of their matches, although they upset the reigning Spanish champions Atletico Madrid 2-1 in their first league fixture last month.

Getting to this stage of the competition has not been a simple task for Espanyol, who narrowly eliminated three Spanish sides in lower divisions, edging Solares 3-2, before a 2-1 comeback win over Cristo Atletico and then holding their nerve from the spot in the round of 32.

Vicente Moreno has this team into the last 16 of this tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when they made it to the quarter-finals before losing to Real Betis in a two-leg affair which ended in extra time.

Blanquiazules have developed a knack for late drama in both this competition and La Liga, scoring four goals beyond the 80th minute in their previous five matches played in all competitions.

Like their opponents, they have had issues starting games on the right foot, conceding twice with less than 20 minutes gone in their last league fixture versus Elche on Monday.

They have shown a lot more quality in front of goal in recent matches, which should come as a relief to this team, who have been near the middle of the pack in La Liga throughout this campaign, currently sitting in 11th and only being shutout once in their last nine competitive fixtures.

Since the 2013-14 season, the club have had eight different managers take charge of this team, and that does not include Moreno, who is in his second season at the helm and still searching to find a consistent winning formula for this group.

Team News

Josep Gaya fired home the equaliser for Mallorca in the previous round of this competition, while Angel replaced Abdon with a half-hour remaining, scoring the winner in the 82nd minute, as Javier Llabres assisted on both goals.

Pablo Maffeo was taken off after only two minutes of play this past weekend in their defeat to Levante with an apparent hip injury that could see him out of the lineup until late January, while Lee Kang-in, Angel and Dominik Greif could all miss this game because of COVID and Antonio Raillo might not be ready to return yet from his ankle problem.

In their first league meeting of the season versus Periquitos, Dani Rodriguez scored the only goal of the game to give Mallorca the victory, and he leads the team in that department with three, one ahead of Fer Nino.

David Lopez is the only injury concern for Espanyol, as he continues to recover from a knee injury and his status is questionable for Saturday.

Adri Embarba, Keidi Bare and Fran Merida all scored from the penalty spot to send them into this stage of the tournament, with goalkeeper Diego Lopez stopping two penalties himself.

Raul de Tomas has two goals in his last three matches played in all competitions, including their lone tally from the penalty spot versus Elche earlier this week.

Mallorca possible starting lineup:
Roman; Olivan, Valjent, Gaya, Sastre; Sevilla, Sedlar; Battaglia, Dani Rodriguez, Amath; A. Rodriguez

Espanyol possible starting lineup:
Lopez; Pedrosa, Cabrera, Gomez, Gil; Melamed, Darder, Bare, Embarba; Lei, Moron

We say: Mallorca 1-2 Espanyol (A.E.T.)

Neither side have been spectacular so far in this competition, so we expect to see a tight game with chances at a premium.

Espanyol have shown a bit more consistency versus top-flight teams this season and have done a good job of keeping their games close, whereas Mallorca have been a little too unpredictable in La Liga.

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