Mallorca's Clean Sheet Machine vs Almería's Leaky Defence: La Liga 2 Sunday Showdown

Sunday's La Liga 2 fixture at Mallorca is the kind of match that tells you everything you need to know about two clubs going in opposite directions. Mallorca have been solid. Almería have been inconsistent. The basics of football, really. You compete, you defend, you win. Or you do not.

Mallorca: Doing the Simple Things Right

The thing is, Mallorca's form over their last three La Liga 2 matches is built on exactly the kind of foundations that win football matches. Two wins, one loss, five goals scored and only two conceded. Two clean sheets from three games. That is not luck. That is a defensive unit with standards.

Mallorca beat Real Valladolid 2-0 on the 15th of August. Controlled. Professional. Then they lost 0-2 to Granada, which tells you they are not perfect and Granada made them pay for it. But the response was immediate. Mallorca beat Ceuta 3-0 on the 30th of August. Three goals, nothing given away. That is the attitude of a side that knows what it is doing.

Listen, I am not going to sit here and tell you Mallorca are unbeatable. They are not. Granada exposed them. But two clean sheets from three at this level is a serious number. It means the backline is organised. It means they are hard to play through. It means Almería are going to have to work for anything they get on Sunday, and based on what Almería have shown recently, I am not sure they have the desire to do it.

Almería: Two Losses on the Bounce and Scoring Is Drying Up

Almería arrive at this fixture on a run of two consecutive losses, and the manner of those defeats is what concerns me. Almería lost 0-1 to Tenerife on the 23rd of August and then 0-1 to Sabadell on the 29th. Two matches, zero goals scored. Zero. That is not just a bad run. That is a problem with attitude or execution, and probably both.

Now, to give Almería some credit, and I am choosing my words carefully here, their wider five-match La Liga 2 sample shows a more balanced picture. Two wins, one draw, two losses. They put three past Eldense on the 17th of August. They won 3-2 against Castellón before that. So the goals are somewhere in there. But they have dried up at exactly the wrong moment going into a tricky away fixture.

The thing is, their defensive record is not much to write home about either. One clean sheet in their last five La Liga 2 matches. Twenty percent. When you are shipping goals and not scoring them, you are in trouble. That combination of problems does not fix itself in one match, especially not on the road.

The Accountability Problem

If I am the Almería manager, I am having a serious conversation with my players this week about what is acceptable. Back-to-back losses where you cannot score a single goal. That is unacceptable. The standards have to be higher. You cannot go to Mallorca, against a side keeping clean sheets, and expect to nick something if you have not scored in two matches.

Mallorca's players, on the other hand, know exactly what they need to do. Win at home. Keep the sheet clean. Make it three clean sheets from four. That is a standard they have set themselves and the job now is to maintain it. Simple as that.

Injuries: Context Without Names

The data confirms one long-term injury absentee on each side, both listed as out with no expected return date. Each club is missing a player, and in both cases the absence has been ongoing since early 2025. Without player names available, it is impossible to say how significant this is for either squad. What I can say is that long-term absences at this stage of the season are a factor every manager has to absorb and get on with. No excuses.

The Bet: Mallorca Clean Sheet

I do not do accumulators. Never have, never will. You back one thing with conviction or you do not back it at all.

My selection here is Mallorca to keep a clean sheet. Two from three at home in La Liga 2. Almería have scored zero goals in their last two matches in this competition. The home side are organised. The visitors are not scoring. That is the evidence. That is what my eyes are telling me and I do not need anything else to make that call.

Mallorca to win and not concede. End of.

Final Verdict

Mallorca are the better side heading into Sunday based on what we have seen in La Liga 2 recently. Their defensive record is proper. Their wins have been professional and controlled. Almería have shown they can score in patches but their current form is poor and the timing of this away fixture could not be worse for them.

I expect Mallorca to win this one without too much drama. They will keep it tight at the back, take their chances when they come, and send Almería home with nothing. Almería need a response in terms of their desire to compete. I am just not convinced they are going to find it on Sunday. The basics will decide this match. Mallorca understand that. Almería need to remind themselves quickly.