Football Bet of the Day: Eibar to edge past Real Oviedo in semi-final second leg

The European Championship and Copa America are both hot on the horizon, but we still don't know the identity of the third club gaining promotion to La Liga next season.

Four second-tier sides still have a chance of reaching the Spanish top flight, and we go to the second leg of the play-off semi-final between SD Eibar and Real Oviedo for our football bet of the day on Wednesday, June 12.

Eibar vs Real Oviedo Odds

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Real Oviedo and Eibar played out a tense goalless draw at Estadio Nuevo Carlos Tartiere in Oviedo last Saturday to leave the tie hanging firmly in the balance ahead of Wednesday's return leg at Estadio Municipal de Ipurua.

There were only 14 shots in the entire game - eight for Oviedo and six for Eibar - and just four shots on target shared between them.

It was a far cry from the last head-to-head which took place just six days earlier on the final day of the regular 2023/24 La Liga 2 campaign when Eibar won 4-3, a result which proved in vain for their automatic promotion hopes as Leganes beat Elche 2-0 to top the table.

Real Valladolid had already secured promotion and finished as runners-up, but a victory for Eibar did ensure them third place ahead of Espanyol and a two-legged semi-final tie with Oviedo, whose defeat didn't prove costly as they clinched sixth spot ahead of Racing Santander.

Ager Aketxe, Sergio Leon, Jose Corpas and Stoichkov were scorers on the day for Eibar, while Borja Sanchez and Borja Baston (x2) struck for the visitors. Baston was also on the scoresheet in November's reverse fixture in Oviedo, equalising after Bautista Jon's opener before Santiago Colombatto netted the winner for the hosts.

As such, both sides had already beaten each other already ahead of last weekend's stalemate, setting up a finely-poised second leg on Wednesday.

What makes it less finely poised, however, is Eibar's brilliant home record. Los Armeros have won their last six games at Municipal de Ipurua, scoring 19 goals and keeping four clean sheets. Only Valladolid (47) picked up more points at home than Eibar (46), whose last league defeat there came on March 10 against Burgos (0-1), and they scored six more goals (45) than the next highest-scoring side at home (Espanyol - 39).

Oviedo were also strong at home in La Liga, collecting just three fewer points (43) on their own ground than Eibar, but it was their away record that really let them down in La Liga 2 as they accrued just 21 points from as many games - less than 12 other sides in the division.

Wednesday's visitors have also lost three of their last four on their travels, beating only 17th-placed Huesca in that period.

Such a poor record on the road is likely to have Eibar's players licking their lips at the opportunity to send themselves into a play-off final in front of their fans, and it's one I don't think that they will throw away.

The next question to ponder is whether we will see a return to the first two games where there were goals to entertain the masses - three in the first, and seven in the second - or if a repeat of last Saturday's turgid affair is more likely.

Unfortunately, I think it might well be the latter, with the fear of failure weighing heavily on both sides.

Meanwhile, four of Oviedo's last six away matches have seen two or fewer goals, and that's been the case for four of Eibar's last seven at home.

A nervy, low-scoring victory for the hosts is what I'm backing on Wednesday, to set up a final with either Espanyol or Sporting Gijon, who meet in their second leg on Thursday.

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