Welcome to The Independent's coverage of tonight's La Liga fixture between league leaders Barcelona and Mallorca!

Barca, meanwhile, have a two-point lead over rivals Real Madrid at the top of the table, and will be looking to extend that ahead of Los Blancos' game against Eibar tomorrow.

But back to tonight's fixture. Mallorca are only a point off 17th placed Celta Vigo and were in good form prior to the shutdown of La Liga due to coronavirus.

They had lost just once in their last four games, with victories in two of them including a 2-1 success at Eibar in their last match.

With Barca's away form less than stellar this season, by their standards, Mallorca will be hoping to get something out of the game. 

However, the home side have lost their last six La Liga matches against the champions and have not beaten Barcelona in the league since May 2009.

So it'll be a tough task.

Quique Setien's side will be hoping to get back down to business after the prolonged period of inactivity. Barca entered the lockdown period on the back of a 1-0 over Sociedad, a bounce back result after their 2-0 loss away to Real Madrid in the El Clasico at the beginning of March.  

The Catalan giants have actually won five of their last six league matches, and have dominated their recent meetings with Mallorca, scoring five times in each of their last two clashes.

With matches against Sevilla and Atletico Madrid still to come Barca will want to send a message tonight and extend their lead at the top of the table to five points. 

How to watch the game tonight I hear you ask. Here are some details:

Team news - Barcelona

It seems a bit strange for Barcelona to use a computer generated image of Lionel Messi to announce the team playing for the first time since lockdown but I guess that's the world we're currently living in. 

The big takeaway is the omission of Luis Suarez. 

Another surprise came in the form of 21-year-old Uruguayan Ronald Araujo who starts alongside Gerard Pique in the centre of Barca's defence as Samuel Umtiti not fully fit and Clement Lenglet is suspended.

Can the youngster impress tonight?

With plenty of goals in the last two matches between the sides, expect more of the same in around 45 minutes time when the match gets underway:  

Team news - Mallorca

Here's a look at how the home side lines up tonight:  

Cucho Hernandez starts up front for Mallorca, he's at the Spanish club on loan from Watford. How will he fare against the Spanish champions? 

The earlier game in La Liga has just concluded with Leganes beaten 2-1 by Real Valladolid. That means Leganes remain in the relegation zone and Mallorca can create a bit of breathing room if they can overcome Barcelona.

Lots to play for then.

After initially rebuffing any possible departure, Juventus have fresh hope of persuading Arthur to leave Spain and the Barcelona man only makes the bench tonight: 

Precautions have been implemented to tackle the ongoing threat of coronavirus. The players all arrived wearing gloves and masks, there is a limited number of staff allowed in the stadium.

Also implemented to grasp a sense of atmosphere are virtual crowd visuals and noise, with TV viewers able to see to-scale images of seated fans wearing the home club's colours in "virtualized" stands.

Barcelona have lost five away games this season, conceding twice in each of the defeats. It is their worst away form in La Liga since the 2007/08 season. 

Can Mallorca take advantage? 

Vicente Moreno has set up his side to take the attack to Barca so you never know.