Next Sunday, 25th of January 2015, two relegation threatened teams, Deportivo La Coruña and Granada, will measure forces at the historical Riazor for round 20 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match of paramount significance for both teams who are currently on a desperate battle for points, in order to escape the depths of the relegation zone of the league table.

After two consecutive matches without being defeated, Deportivo failed to extend their positive moment and sucumbed at the expenses of the all-powerful Barcelona last Sunday night. The Galician suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat and dropped one place on the league table, finding themselves now dangerously close to the relegation zone. Depor’s resistance against Barça only lasted ten minutes until the usual suspect, Lionel Messi, opened the score for the Catalan team. The Argentinean superstar was the man of the match after scoring another hat-trick and granting Barça their 14th win of the season.

Deportivo are currently on the 17th position of the table with 17 points from 19 matches, just one point above Almeria, who are the first team below the relegation line. Things are definitely not easy for Depor’s manager, Victor Fernandez, who, given the team’s financial problems, is performing a very satisfactory job, but the upcoming match against Granada poses a great opportunity for the Galician side to return to wins. For that particular match, the Zaragoza-born manager is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution of the experienced Portuguese striker Helder Postiga and of the talented Argentinean midfielder Farina, both currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Granada, the new season has been a complete disaster so far. The Andalusian team is on the last place of La Liga’s table with just two wins from 19 matches so far and the last time they’ve won a league match was back in September, when they defeated Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés.

The team’s poor form forced the board to part ways with the experienced manager Joaquin Caparros last week and they appointed Abel Resino, a former famous goalkeeper from Atlético Madrid, as their new manager until the end of the current season. Abel has a Herculean task ahead of him, but a win at Riazor could help his team to restore the motivation levels that were lost a long time ago.

Despite of last weekend’s heavy defeat, Deportivo are firm favourites to win the upcoming match at Riazor, although the managerial change at Granada might motivate them to clinch a good result.

Deportivo La Coruña

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LDWLL

Granada

Stats: W-0 L-4 D-1

Recent Form - LLDLL

Possible Line-ups

Deportivo La Coruña (4-3-3) - Fabri - Juanfran - Lopo - Insua - Luisinho - Bergantinos - Rodriguez - Medunjanin - Dominguez - Cavaleiro - Riera

Granada (4-3-3) - Olazabal - Nyom - Babin - Mainz - Sissoko - Marquez - Iturra - Rico - Bangoura - Foulquier - El Arabi

Prediction

Deportivo La Coruña 2 Granada 1