MADRID, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Matchday 31 in Spain’s La Liga sees a key round of matches with the Madrid derby in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and two games which could leave the relegation battle either decided or still wide open.
The Madrid derby is held on Sunday, after league leaders, FC Barcelona defend their nine-point lead at the top of the table at home to Leganes on Saturday night.
Barça have always beaten Leganes, but the game comes in the middle of Barça's Champions League quarter-final tie against Roma and despite their 4-1 win in the first leg, coach Ernesto Valverde will look to rest some of his key players.
Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele will start, while Paco Alcacer also has a chance of making Valverde's starting 11 along with Yerry Mina.
There is local pride at stake on Saturday as both Betis and Sevilla are in action. Betis leapfrogged their neighbors into sixth place with a win in Getafe on Monday.
Sevilla have dropped down to seventh and their place in Europe is starting to look in danger. They must take all three points from their trip to Celta Vigo, who still have an outside chance of qualifying for Europe themselves.
Pablo Sarabia is back for Sevilla, who were also in midweek European action as they lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich on Tuesday. The Madrid derby is the key game on Sunday and it will be interesting to see how the two sides approach the game.
Neither Real Madrid nor Atletico Madrid have much chance of overtaking Barça at the top of the table, and both are still involved in European competition. Real Madrid's 3-0 win away to Juventus means they have a foot and a half in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Zinedine Zidane will be able to bring players like Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio into his side and it will be interesting to see who he rests in a game where local pride is the main prize. Losing to Atletico would be quickly forgotten if Real win the Champions League for the third consecutive year.
Valencia could take advantage of the result in the Bernabeu to close the gap on Real or Atletico after seven wins from eight games has left them with a 15 point lead over fifth place Villarreal.
Valencia face Espanyol who are in lower mid-table no mans' land, the same territory as Real Sociedad, whose home game against Girona could determine if Girona have a chance of qualifying for Europe in their first season in the elite.
The weekend also sees second from bottom Deportivo la Coruna entertain bottom club, Malaga, while Las Palmas visit Levante, who have a seven point cushion over their visitors.
A win for Levante will leave the relegation battle virtually resolved, but if Las Palmas can claim a victory, there could still be surprises in the battle to avoid the drop.
