La Liga betting tips: Winning starts for Barcelona and Real Madrid?
Published:
After months of waiting, the Spanish football season is back underway. Barcelona and Real Madrid reignite their thrilling title tussle with just two points separating them going into the weekend.
Barca will look to extend their lead to five points with victory at Mallorca on Saturday before Los Blancos kick-off on Sunday evening at home to a struggling Eibar.
Sevilla set the pace for the chasing pack trying to secure European football next season. Victory on Thursday against Real Betis in the Gran Derbi put the pressure back on the likes of Real Sociedad, Getafe and Atletico Madrid, who are all in action this weekend.
You can watch all the matches live on Premier Sports with La Liga matches every day until the season concludes on 19th July.
Mallorca v Barcelona (Sat, 19:00)
The home side will have their work cut out against the league leaders. Although it won’t be a straight-forward affair, its difficult to look past a Barcelona win at 1/4.
Mallorca (10/1) seemed to hit a bit of form before the enforced break with two wins and a draw from their last five matches.
Lionel Messi was the star of the show when the two sides met in December. The Argentine scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 win at Camp Nou. Messi is 17/2 to score a hat-trick again at Son Moix.
Mallorca’s top scorer Ante Budimir is 8/1 to score first for the hosts. The last three matches between these sides has produced five goals or more, Over 4.5 goals is 5/2.
Athletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (Sun, 13:00)
There is plenty at stake for both sides when they play at San Mames on Sunday afternoon.
Athletic (13/5) will believe they still have a chance of securing a Europa League spot. Whereas Atlético(5/4), after a difficult start to the season, will have an eye on third place in the table.
Los Colchoneros have found goals hard to come by this season as they struggled to adapt to life without Antoine Griezmann. However, they carry a threat in attack with Alvaro Morata (17/10) and Diego Costa (23/10) to score anytime.
Last time the sides met at San Mames, Athletic cruised to a 2-0 win. Inaki Williams scored the opening goal that day and Williams is 13/2 to repeat the feat.
Real Madrid v Eibar (Sun, 18:30)
Real Madrid start as 1/4 favourites to secure three points at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano against Eibar (12/1).
Before the break, Madrid’s form had been stuttering with two wins from five games, while Eibar hadn’t won since February.
Eden Hazard is back in contention and is 6/5 to score anytime after an injury-hit start to the campaign. Karim Benzema is 3/1 to score two or more.
Both teams to score is 1/1 with over 2.5 match goals 1/2 odds.
Best of the rest
The battle for a European spot also continues with fifth-placed Getafe (13/10) travel to Granada (23/10) on Friday night.
Valencia (8/13) take on Levante (7/2) in a cross-city derby at the Mestalla which has a history of producing plenty of goals. Valencia to win and over 2.5 goals is 11/8.
High-flying Real Sociedad are 2/3 favourites against Osasuna (4/1) to wrap up the weekend on Sunday evening in La Liga.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication.
