How three unlikely candidates from La Liga can qualify for the UEFA Europa League | OneFootball

Three La Liga clubs are fighting for the final European positions on the final day of the competition, and one will have to miss out.

RC Celta de Vigo, Rayo Vallecano and CA Osasuna, currently sitting seventh, eighth and ninth in the table respectively, will head into the final day with the UEFA Europa League in their sights.

La Liga has received five Champions League positions for the 2025/26 season along with the Premier League as a result of Spanish teams’ performances in Europe this season.

This means that sixth and seventh in La Liga will qualify for the Europa League, while eighth will qualify for the UEFA Conference League.

As things stand, Celta Vigo will join Real Betis in the Europa League, Rayo Vallecano will qualify for the Conference League, and Osasuna will miss out.

Celta Vigo will travel to Getafe, who have one of the worst home records in the league this season, with only four wins out of 18 played.

Claudio Giráldez’s team have already beaten Getafe 1-0 in November thanks to a goal from Greek centre-forward Anastasios Douvikas, but a decision must be made regarding whether to start Borja Iglesias, who has the side’s most league goals this season, or club legend Iago Aspas.

Rayo Vallecano, who beat Celta Vigo in their previous game, will host RCD Mallorca, who sit four points behind them in the league in 10th place and are out of contention for a European position.

The Madrid-based side have won four out of five games in the penultimate rounds of the season, with their recent 3-0 defeat against Atlético Madrid at the Estadio Metropolitano the only outlier. However, they have not beaten Mallorca in La Liga since 2021.

Osasuna will travel to Deportivo Alavés, where they will hope Croatian centre-forward Ante Budimir can add to his goal tally in La Liga; only Kylian Mbappé and Robert Lewandowski have scored more in the competition.

All three teams are within two points of each other in the table, and it could go either way in the scrap for European positions on Saturday.