Football Betting Tips: Mark’s Best Bets for Matchday 37 in La Liga

Mark is back with his Spanish Best Bets and he looks for more joy this during this penultimate as he picks out his three Best Bets for MD37 over in La Liga. You can check out his Football Betting Tips for the weekend below with selections spanning for Sunday, with every match kicking off at 18:00.

Las Palmas vs Leganes - Draw No Bet - Leganes @ 8/11

This match has looked destined to be a huge relegation six-pointer for some time, but as it turns out, only Leganes head into it with any chance of avoiding the drop.Las Palmas were relegated by virtue of a fourth straight defeat in midweek. They were beaten 1-0 at fellow strugglers Sevilla, with some big decisions going against them on a painful night for everyone connected with the club.

There was real optimism less than a month ago when they secured back-to-back wins by defeating Atlético Madrid 1-0 at the Estadio de Gran Canaria. However, that was the last time that their top scorer Fabio Silva played, with an injury for the Wolves loanee a major turning point in their season, with Las Palmas firing blanks in three of their four matches since then.

Silva has now played his last game for the club, and it’s likely to be a really flat atmosphere for this game, with Las Palmas now just playing for pride. They’ve thrown everything at this survival push, but haven’t had enough in the end, and they may have a hard time matching the intensity of a Leganés side that is still fighting for their lives.

The visitors still look the most likely candidates for the third relegation position, but victory here could potentially see them take their survival fight until the final day when they’ll be very confident of seeing off rock bottom Real Valladolid at home.

They have largely risen to the challenge of the pressure games they’ve had to deal with in recent weeks. They were unbeaten in four matches heading into their trip to Villarreal in midweek. While they did lose that game 3-0, they had 23 attempts in that match and the majority of the possession, with the Yellow Submarine a little fortunate to win by such a clear margin.

Borja Jiménez’s side haven’t lost a single match against any of the teams in the bottom seven of La Liga heading into the penultimate weekend. Up against a Las Palmas side that is already down, I’m backing Draw No Bet - Leganes at 8/11.

Celta Vigo vs Rayo Vallecano - Celta Vigo to win and Over 2.5 goals @ 8/5

The teams currently sat in seventh and eighth in La Liga meet at the Estadio de Balaídos on Sunday. Both positions will be good enough for European qualification, and Celta Vigo will secure a place in next season’s Europa League if they win this game.

That would complete a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the Galician club since a miserable centenary season under Rafa Benítez. They replaced the veteran boss with their young B-team coach Claudio Giráldez in March of last year, and the 37-year-old has totally transformed this football club.

His approach from day one has been to put faith in youth, and a large number of his former B-team players have been promoted to the senior set-up, and most have shone at the higher level. That has also contributed to Celta having real depth across the pitch, with at least two good options in virtually every position, with extensive rotation from match to match, another defining feature of the Giráldez way.

That should stand them in good stead here, heading into another game following their excellent victory at Real Sociedad on Tuesday night. It would be no surprise at all if Giráldez made seven or eight changes from that fixture, with the likes of Marcos Alonso, Hugo Álvarez, Iago Aspas and Pablo Durán potentially coming in.

Being able to bring in fresh legs without really weakening the team could give them the edge on Rayo Vallecano who have a smaller squad, and are also at a disadvantage having played on Thursday night against Real Betis, meaning they’ve had 48 hours less recovery time.

Rayo drew that game 2-2, but they did throw away a two-goal advantage, and that may very well prove costly as they bid to secure a European place, given they are in a close battle with Osasuna, Malllorca and Valencia for the Conference League place.

While they’ve taken seven points from their last three games and take reasonably good form into this, they have looked unconvincing defensively in some of their recent matches. Since the beginning of April, Iñigo Pérez’s side have conceded four goals against Espanyol, and three in tough away games against Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid.

Celta have won 11 out of 18 in Vigo this term, and they’ve been scoring freely in front of their own fans. Balaídos should be buzzing come kick-off on Sunday, with these supporters much more accustomed to relegation fights than European challenges at this stage of the season.

It has been a terrific season for the club, and I can see them securing Europa League qualification on Sunday, so I’m backing Celta Vigo to win and Over 2.5 goals at 8/5.

Valencia vs Athletic Club - BTTS No @ 4/5

Valencia have an outside chance of grabbing the final European place, although they’ll need a fair few favours elsewhere for that to happen, with a solid mid-table finish now the most likely outcome for Los Che.

That would still mark an excellent achievement given where they were when Carlos Corberán took charge at the turn of the year. The former West Brom boss has taken 33 points from his 19 games in charge, having taken over a side that was sat on just 12 points after 17 matchdays.

There have been improvements across the pitch, but particularly in midfield where Javi Guerra and Enzo Barrenechea have both excelled since the change in the dugout. Corberán has also got quite a settled back four, one that now offers decent protection to the impressive Giorgi Mamardashvili in goal.

Sadly for Valencia fans, a number of those promising youngsters won’t be at Mestalla next season, but they’ll fancy their chances of seeing one last strong home display from their team against an Athletic side that is no longer playing for anything, after securing Champions League qualification with a 2-0 win at Getafe in midweek.

It has been a busy season for Athletic’s key players given their long run in the Europa League, and all of their main attacking threats have been dealing with injuries over the past few weeks. Both Williams brothers again missed the trip to the Coliseum, while their top scorer Oihan Sancet has frequently been restricted to appearances off the bench due to an ongoing fitness issue.

With little riding on this, it’s hard to see Ernesto Valverde taking any unnecessary risks with his attacking stars, but he should still be able to count on what is statistically La Liga’s best defence, with only 26 goals conceded in 36 games this term.

There have been just five goals scored in total in the last five Athletic Club league games, and on what’s likely to be a warm evening in Valencia, I can see this game being played at a relatively slow pace, with both sides solid enough at the back to prevent many goals from being scored. Given that, I’m backing Both teams to score - No at 4/5.

Mark Sochon primarily covers Spanish Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out Mark's La Liga Betting Tips along with those from the rest of the Betfred Insights Spanish Football writers on our La Liga home page...