With Tony Adams’ Granada side already relegated from La Liga and Espanyol in 10^th, this game certainly isn’t going to set the footballing world alight. The highest Granada can finish is one place above in 19^th while Espanyol can still finish 8^th with a win on Friday night. Granada have deserved to go down as they’ve awful all season while a very decent season for Espanyol has confirmed they will finish in the top half.

STATS

• Granada have picked up just 1 point in their last 12 league games which shows just how bad they’ve been and the late introduction of Tony Adams didn’t improve their form as they failed to pick up any points under his leadership.
• Espanyol have won just 1 of their last 5 games as they knew several weeks ago that they’d have nothing to play for with a handful of league games left. A narrow 1-0 defeat to Valencia in their last match was a clear indicator that they are on the beach.
• Granada’s poor season has been summed up with their lack of goal scorers as they don’t have a single player with more than 5 goals in the league this season. Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez has scored 5 for La Liga’s bottom club.
• Gerard Moreno and Pablo Piatti are the two Espanyol players with double figures in terms of league goals this season with 13 and 10 respectively. Piatti has also chipped in with 10 assists, a very good season for the Argentine with 20 direct goal involvements.

HEAD TO HEAD

Granada haven’t beaten Espanyol in their last 7 attempts as the visitors have recorded 5 wins and 2 draws. Both teams have scored in the last 5 meetings but with Granada’s form this season, a goal is a huge ask.

GRANADA NEWS

As Granada prepare for life in a lower division, they can sign off their season with a win in front of their home fans. Tony Adams will almost definitely not be in charge of the club at the start of next season so they’ll need to find a new manager that can get them back into La Liga very quickly. The hosts are without 5 players for the final game of the season as Kravets, Tabanou, Saunier, Ponce and Foulquier will all miss the fixture through injuries or suspensions, making it even harder for them to pick up their 5^th victory of the season.

Latest matches: Granada CF

13.05.2017	LaLi	CA Osasuna	Granada CF	2:1	L
06.05.2017	LaLi	Granada CF	Real Madrid	0:4	L
29.04.2017	LaLi	Real Sociedad	Granada CF	2:1	L
25.04.2017	LaLi	Granada CF	Malaga CF	0:2	L
21.04.2017	LaLi	Sevilla FC	Granada CF	2:0	L

ESPANYOL NEWS

With an 8^th place finish available for Espanyol with a win, they’ll be desperate to finish as high as they can as well as putting even more pressure on Granada. They also have 5 players who will miss the game througb injury as Sevilla, Duarte, Lopez, Roberto and Javi Fuego are all very unlikely to feature. They should still have too much strength for an incredibly weak Granada side.

Latest matches: Espanyol Barcelona

13.05.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	Valencia CF	0:1	L
07.05.2017	LaLi	Deportivo La Coruna	Espanyol Barcelona	1:2	W
29.04.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	FC Barcelona	0:3	L
25.04.2017	LaLi	Sporting Gijon	Espanyol Barcelona	1:1	D
22.04.2017	LaLi	Espanyol Barcelona	Atletico Madrid	0:1	L

SUMMING UP!

Espanyol are fully expected to pile even more misery upon the Granada players as they will look to score at will to finish the season on a high. The players haven’t been inspired by Tony Adams at all since his arrival and I expect this to continue as Espanyol will go on to comfortably beat the worst team in La Liga this season.