the battle to be crowned champions of spain is hotting up and ahead of the international break the top sides will be keen to get a win and maintain their title credentials. we take a look at all 10 la liga games this weekend, serving up our predictions for what might transpire, along with betting tips and the best live odds comparison.
barcelona started the season so well but few could have predicted their slide in recent games. back to back defeats, as well as a draw at the end of september, have seen them go from top of the league and without a goal conceded after eight games to a lacklustre fourth position after 10 games. they face a trip to almeria this weekend and with the home side priced at 20/1 with betfair it’s clear which way the bookies think this one will go. we predict barca will bounce back from their defeat at real madrid and a (more surprising) home loss to celta vigo with a comfortable victory here and our main betting tip is for barcelona to win both halves at nice odds.
the catalan side’s slip has allowed rivals real madrid to assume control of la liga and they host rayo vallecano in one of saturday’s televised games. when madrid play at home it’s very easy to make two predictions: first, there will be a lot of goals and second, cristiano ronaldo will be among the scorers. in midweek a much-changed liverpool managed to keep the galacticos to just a single goal and, more shockingly, ronaldo’s run of scoring in 12 straight games came to an end, but we think it will be back to business as usual here. madrid are priced at betting odds of just 1/10 with stan james but we think they are worth backing to win by at least three against mid-table vallecano and backing madrid -2.5 on the asian handicap is a nice way to up those odds to gain a more respectable return on your investment.
valencia, currently second, who are perhaps the biggest surprise package of what has proved an unpredictable league campaign thus far. they host basque side athletic bilbao on sunday evening in another big televised clash and given they have won all five home games, including a 3-1 success over atletico madrid, it is hardly a bold prediction to suggest they will again here. odds of 8/11 with coral and others for the home win look good though, especially as bilbao have struggled on the road this term.
the other side in contention at the top of the table is sevilla and they play levante at home on sunday morning (again, uk time). levante, who are currently 18th in la liga, are priced at huge betting odds of 12/1 with sky bet but even at that price we won’t be betting on them. sevilla are 3/10 with stan james and that looks a nice bet to include in a la liga accumulator to us or you could also back them to win to nil at bigger odds.
the first game of the la liga “weekend" comes on friday night and sees cordoba host deportivo la coruna in front of the television cameras. the home side can be backed at odds of 7/5 with bet365 and that looks very good to us, although the draw may be better value at betting odds of 9/4 with coral given the home side have drawn five of their 10 la liga games thus far.
another game between sides hardly enjoying great campaigns sees getafe host elche and this is not an easy one to predict. that said, predictions is what we do, so given the visitors have the worst away defensive record in the top flight we think the home win alongside btts looks a great bet at big odds of 19/4 with bwin.
celta vigo welcome granada to the balaídos in another tricky fixture to predict. the home side are priced at odds of 3/5 with ladbrokes but we don’t think they’ll have it quite so easy and backing the draw could be a more prudent move at the bigger price of 3/1 with betvictor.
another game where we could see a stalemate is eibar’s trip to malaga, although again many are sure to predict a home win. tiny eibar are doing better than anyone could have predicted in the top flight, sitting ninth after 10 games and giving themselves a great chance of staying up. malaga are five points above them in the table but we think the draw offers value at nice odds of 14/5 with 888sport here.
the final game we will offer up betting tips and predictions for is villarreal’s trip to espanyol and whilst there is little in the odds here we think the home side will prove too strong. priced at betting odds of 2/1 with ladbrokes, espanyol should have enough to claim a third home win of the campaign despite villarreal’s solid away form in la liga thus far.