Barca aim to hold off Real

Barcelona are odds-on favourites to retain the Spanish Liga title, but can not afford to slip up in Saturday's season finale against a Granada side who have only pride to play for.

Barca were 10 points clear of Real Madrid two months ago but after a recent slide are now only one above the rampant Whites, who visit Deportivo La Coruna.

The historical precedents are very much in Barca's favour.

They have never thrown away La Liga on the last day when ahead on points while Real have never snatched the title when behind on points going into the final match.

Leading the Barca attack in Granada will be the in-form Luis Suarez, who is league top scorer with 37 goals.

"We depend on nobody else except ourselves, we just have to win and forget all about the other matches," the Uruguayan marksman said.

"We are a strong group of players and we have stayed united in victory and defeat. We went rather flat in April but we have recovered since then, with four straight wins."

Barca will again be without injured goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, with understudy Marc-Andre ter Stegen taking his place.

Granada secured their safety last week but are determined to make things difficult for Barca, amid rumours of third-party "motivation payments" for them from Madrid.

"I don't know anything about special payments from Madrid," Granada winger Isaac Cuenca said.

Cuenca, who started his career at Barca, added: "We are going to try to win, as we always do...I would love to score the winning goal Saturday."

Real go to La Coruna at full strength as Gareth Bale and Keylor Navas have been declared fit. They are looking for their 12th straight win in a remarkable resurgence which started with that 2-1 win at Barca.

"All we can do is win at Deportivo and hope that something goes wrong for Barca," right-back Dani Carvajal said.

The two big games are scheduled for 1500 GMT Saturday.

Third-placed Atletico Madrid host fifth-placed Celta Vigo later Saturday, after their title chances went up in smoke with a shock 2-1 defeat at relegated Levante last weekend.

Diego Simeone's team are now completely focused on the May 28 Champions final against Real.

Gijon host fourth-placed Villarreal and Rayo take on Levante - both of them hoping for Betis to hold out against Getafe.

The other final matches are Valencia v Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao v Sevilla, Malaga v Las Palmas and Espanyol v Eibar.