MADRID, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The battle for the Liga Santander title could be affected by the needs of several sides in the King's Cup knockout competition when the Spanish season moves into its second half this weekend.
League leaders FC Barcelona have to overturn a first leg deficit in the Cup to local rivals Espanyol after a narrow 1-0 defeat on Wednesday night, but before next week's return leg, they have a tricky game away to Betis on Sunday evening.
Barca coach Ernesto Valverde is without Ousmane Dembele and Phillipe Countinho and possibly Paulinho, who suffered a foot injury in Wednesday, but will start Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic, Nelson Semedo and Luis Suarez, none of whom were in his starting 11 in the Cup.
Betis have won their last two games and have been playing flowing attacking football under coach Quique Setien and Sunday promises to be an open and attacking game of football and it will be interesting to see Barca's reaction following their first defeat in 30 games.
Saturday sees Atletico Madrid play the first of three consecutive home games as Girona visit the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
Diego Costa, Stefan Savic and Gabi Fernandez are all back after suspension, but Diego Godin misses out after completing a cycle of bookings against Eibar.
Sevilla may have won in the Wanda in the Cup, but they have lost their two league matches since Vincenzo Montella took over at the helm and need to end that run away to Espanyol to avoid the risk of slipping out of the top six.
Villarreal meanwhile could temporarily overtake Real Madrid and move into fourth if they are able to build on last weekend's win in the Bernabeu and beat Levante in a local derby.
Levante have slipped down the table to sixteenth place since beating Villarreal on the first day of the campaign, but have lost just once in their last six away games and that was against Barcelona.
Last weekend saw Las Palmas concede six goals against Girona and they will need a drastic improvement if they are to take something from Valencia on Saturday night.
Valencia will have one eye on the return leg of their Cup tie, but should have the firepower to take advantage of Las Palmas' flimsy defense and a tense atmosphere in the Esatadio Gran Canaria.
Real Madrid are in action on Sunday at home to Deportivo la Coruna and Zinedine Zidane's side have to option other than to beat a side struggling for points in the relegation zone.
Sergio Ramos remains the only doubt for Zidane, whose side have lost their last two league games in front of their fans.
The weekend also sees an improving Alaves at home to Leganes, who have been given a hard time by a fixture calendar which obliges them to play their third game in under 7 days.
Real Sociedad need a good performance at home to Celta Vigo in order to gain confidence after a poor run of results, while Monday night sees Jose Gonzalez make his debut as Malaga coach with a difficult visit to Eibar.
