This game will be described as “a Catalan derby” in most of the previews and that is technically true. But there won’t be a derby or rivalry atmosphere at the Estadi Montilivi. That’s because most fans of Girona are also supporters of Barcelona, and for many years this was perfectly compatible, since these fans supported Girona in the lower leagues and Barça in LaLiga.

When Girona were first promoted to LaLiga in 2017, spending two years in the top flight, their home games against Barcelona always had a strange atmosphere, that of a fanbase that obviously wants their local side to win but that doesn’t want their “big team” to drop vital points in the title race. That saw Barcelona win 3-0 and 2-0 on those two trips up the road to Girona and there should be a similar feel at this game. The players, of course, won’t care about this and will want to take points off Barcelona, but do keep in mind that this might be the fixture with the least home advantage for Girona of their entire season.

Apart from that, there are various footballing reasons to believe Barcelona can pick up the three points. They’re missing the suspended Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, but that’s it, and Xavi’s side have actually done quite well during the previous two games of Lewandowski’s three-match ban, winning 1-0 at Atlético and 1-0 at home to Getafe. Their defence remains solid, and the midfield is looking sharper than ever. This should be a victory for Barcelona, one which would confirm them as league leaders at the halfway stage of the campaign.

This is match between two sides near the bottom of the table, but there is a huge gap between them in terms of current form and squad quality. Sevilla have had a very poor season by their high standards and were just knocked out the Copa del Rey by Osasuna in extra time on Wednesday, but Jorge Sampaoli’s side have been looking better in the league of late and seem energised by the winter signings of Lucas Ocampos and Loïc Badé.

They’ve now won two home league games in a row and were quite impressive in last weekend’s 1-0 win over relegation zone side Cádiz, even if it took a late penalty to finally get the breakthrough. Elche are a much worse side than Cádiz and sit bottom of the table on just six points from 18 games for a reason.

In fact, it almost seems like Elche are already giving up and planning for life in the second division next season, as they just loaned one of their main strikers Roger Martí to relegation rivals Cádiz.

So, this should be a comfortable home win for Sevilla, partly because the Andalusian side are starting to do things right but mostly because Elche are truly terrible.

Getafe vs Real Betis is the “prime time” Saturday night game this weekend, but there have certainly been many more attractive fixtures in that time slot over the season so far. This really could be quite a dull game as Getafe should set up in their usual ultra-defensive 5-3-2, while Real Betis will dominate possession but might struggle to do much with it, as has been the case in their recent matches.

The stats also show that these two teams are failing to produce much entertainment this term. Looking at the total goals scored on average in their LaLiga contests this 2022/23 season, Real Betis matches have produced the third-fewest goals, with just 1.94 on average, while Getafe matches have produced the fifth-fewest, with just 2.28. Those numbers go down further if just looking at the last eight matches played, as Real Betis matches have had 1.75 goals per game in that run, while recent Getafe matches have produced just 1.63 goals per game.

With both these sides in poor form, coming into this one on the back of three straight LaLiga losses, viewers will witness two out-of-confidence teams scrapping for a point or three. They aren’t likely to witness many goals in the process.