FC Barcelona travel to Las Palmas Saturday, looking to extend their slim La Liga lead over Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. With Madrid hosting a depleted Girona FC squad and Atletico traveling to relegation-bound Valencia on Sunday, the pressure is on for Barca to get 3 points in the Canary Islands.
While Las Palmas hasn´t won a match in 2025 and sit on the brink of relegation, they´re a difficult team to play against, much like the Rayo Vallecano team Barca struggled to defeat 1-0 last week. They´re compact defensively, they fight for everything and make it difficult for a team like Barca to impose their will.
Add former Barca player Sandro Ramirez (7 goals, 3 assists), and former Spain international Jaime Mata and there are quality attacking players in the team. Luckily for FC Barcelona both Fabio Silva (7 goals, 2 assists) and former Manchester United and Real Sociedad forward Adnan Januzaj are both injured and won´t feature.
Pedri returns to the club who gave him his professional debut at age 16. He went on to play 36 matches for Las Palmas before being snatched up by FC Barcelona in 2020. Originally from the island of Tenerife, he will be crucial to Barca´s success on Saturday night as he has been the entire season.
Three crucial points are at stake, along with the need to rotate players in preparation for a grueling 3 matches in 8 days ahead of the team. With the Copa del Rey semifinal against Atletico coming Tuesday, followed by Real Sociedad at home in La Liga and Benfica on the road in the Champions League, coach Hansi Flick will likely need to insert 2nd choice players in several positions for the Las Palmas match.
Look for Dani Olmo, who hasn’t started a match since December 15th, to be in the first IX, along with Fermin Lopez who hasn´t started since Barca´s 5-0 win over Valencia on February 6th in which he scored. Expect to see Ronald Araujo inserted at center back as well as Ferran Torres at the 9, giving 36-year-old Robert Lewandowski a day off.
It´s not going to be an easy night for Barca, but this is a 3 points they absolutely need and will have to fight to get.