Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from La Liga for Matchday 1

The 24/25 La Liga season gets going on Thursday evening and it is the perfect start for our Spanish Football Betting Expert to provide the first salvo for his Best Bets column for the campaign.

As always, he has scoured the La Liga markets and picked out his three Best Bets for the week as he takes us through his Football Betting Tips for Week 1 in Spain...

Athletic Club vs Getafe (Thursday 18:00)  

The first game of the new campaign is at San Mamés with Athletic Club, who finished 5th last time around, up against Getafe who ended up in 12th. 

Key to Athletic’s success in the 2023/24 season was their home form. Backed by one of the noisiest followings in La Liga, they are really tough to play against in Bilbao. You have to go back more than 12 months to the opening day of last season for the last time a visiting team left with three points. That team was Real Madrid and this is a really tough opening assignment for Getafe. 

Most things point towards a home win, not least Getafe’s woeful run at the end of last season, which saw them lose five on the bounce. The injury absence of their top scorer Borja Mayoral was a big factor in them tailing off in the final two months of the season and he still hasn’t recovered in time to take part in this match. 

That leaves Getafe in a pretty desperate state where they head into the opening matchday without a recognised striker, with the likes of Jaime Mata, Juanmi Latasa and Enes Ünal no longer at the club. 

They may look to use winger Carles Pérez as a lone forward with visiting boss José Bordalás, not the most adventurous of coaches at the best of times, likely to park the bus and play for a point. 

Athletic may need to be patient and they may not be able to call upon Euro 2024-star Nico Williams from the off. The 22-year-old is yet to feature in pre-season, but should play some role in the game and the hosts ought to have enough quality to find a breakthrough at some point. As a result, I’m backing Athletic to win and under 3.5 goals at 9/10. 

*You can check out all of the Football Odds we offer over at betfred.com

Las Palmas vs Sevilla (Friday 20:30) 

There are a number of teams in La Liga who look really short in the striker department heading into matchday one, and two of them meet at the Estadio Gran Canaria on Friday night. 

It’s an immediate return to the Canary Islands for new Sevilla boss García Pimienta. He guided Las Palmas to promotion in 2023 and safety last season, but things had started to turn a bit sour by the end with an eight-game losing streak, part of a run that saw Los Amarillos fail to win a league game from February onwards. 

Pimienta arrives in Seville with a reputation for possession-based football, while Las Palmas have turned to Luis Carrión, who nearly guided Real Oviedo to promotion from the second tier last term, as his successor. Like Pimienta, the 45-year-old is another Barcelona-born coach who likes his teams to keep the ball and there’s a danger these two could cancel each other out on the opening matchday. 

Carrión has a really big job on his hands in resurrecting the fortunes of Las Palmas after a miserable end to last season and they head into the new campaign as the favourites for relegation. Only two teams scored fewer goals in La Liga last term and while they’ve signed two new forwards in the shape of Jaime Mata from Getafe and Oli McBurnie from Sheffield United, those aren’t necessarily signings that will solve all of their goalscoring issues. 

Sevilla could have their own problems on that front. They’ve cashed in on 16-goal top scorer Youssef En-Nesyri who netted exactly a third of their league goals during the 2023/24 campaign. Isaac Romero, a young player who was promoted from the B team midway through last season, is likely to lead the line on his own in this match. 

There may also be an adjustment period as they get used to Pimienta’s distinctive passing style and there are certainly doubts as to whether they have the personnel to play that kind of football. 

They’ve only managed five goals in their five pre-season games, while Las Palmas have been involved in a couple of goalless friendlies. I can see this being a tight affair, with not a great deal of action and I’m using the #PickYourPunt builder to back Under 2.5 goals and Both teams to score - No at 11/10. 

*You can check out all of the La Liga Odds we offer over at betfred.com

Villarreal vs Atlético Madrid (Monday 20:30) 

Atlético Madrid’s trip to the Estadio de la Cerámica has the potential to be the best of the opening games in La Liga. Villarreal ended last season with the fifth best goalscoring record, but third worst defence in the Spanish top flight. They should have funds available to do some late transfer business, but there is little suggestion that they’re going to be any more solid at the back heading into this game. 

Goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen has completed his move to Chelsea so new signing Diego Conde may be between the sticks, although the Yellow Submarine are likely to target a new number one over the coming weeks. Eric Bailly and Raúl Albiol are expected to be the starting centre-backs here and it’s safe to say that both are some way past their peak, with the latter turning 39 next month. 

As a result, Atleti should sense weakness in the Villarreal backline and they’ll fancy their chances of replicating their 2-1 victory on this ground in April. Their chances are aided by the fact that Alexander Sørloth, a scorer for the hosts in that game, will be lining up for the visitors this time around. 

The 28-year-old recently completed a €32m switch to the Estadio Metropolitano having fired in an outstanding 23 league goals for Villarreal last season at a rate of one every 108 minutes. He only missed out on the Pichichi as a result of Artem Dovbyk’s final weekend hat-trick for Girona. 

Given Norway’s failure to qualify for Euro 2024, Sørloth has had a full pre-season and it looks likely that he should go straight into Diego Simeone’s starting line-up on Monday. He could form an exciting front three along with Julián Álvarez and Antoine Griezmann for Atleti this season, although with those two having been heavily involved in international tournaments, Sørloth may be best placed to make an immediate impact. 

No player can better his return of 17 La Liga goals so far in 2024 and I like the look of Alexander Sørloth to score anytime at 8/5 here, with the curse of the ex potentially striking at the Cerámica on Monday night. 

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...