Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from La Liga for Matchday 2

The second matchday in the Spanish top flight sees two of last season’s top four clash in Madrid, while Sevilla and Villarreal meet in what should be an entertaining Friday night game.

Mark Sochon takes us through his Best Bets for the weekend in La Liga, coming off a one-for-three column last week, although the winner was an 8/5 shot...

Sevilla vs Villarreal (Friday 20:30) 

It’s a new chapter at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán as García Pimienta takes charge of his first home game as Sevilla boss. Fans of the Andalusian club may be growing slightly tired of new dawns with Pimienta the fifth managerial appointment since the departure of Julen Lopetegui in October 2022. 

While Sevilla did somehow manage to add another Europa League to their impressive haul during this period of uncertainty, it only really masked the bigger picture, which has been that of a club in decline with chaos in the boardroom and little to like on the pitch. 

The Pimienta reign started with a 2-2 draw away at relegation favourites Las Palmas. There were some positives, but defensively they looked more vulnerable than perhaps should have been the case against a side that ranked amongst the lowest scorers last term.  

The departure of Sergio Ramos leaves a big void in the centre of their defence given the leadership and experience he brought to the table. In his absence, Pimienta went with a back four, but it was another shaky display from young centre-back Tanguy Nianzou who scored an own goal and has tended to struggle in Spain since moving from Bayern Munich two years ago. 

Villarreal will certainly feel there are gaps in the home defence that they can exploit. While the Yellow Submarine have lost last season’s top scorer Alexander Sørloth, they still posed plenty of attacking threat against the Norwegian’s new club Atlético Madrid on Monday. 

Arnaut Danjuma grabbed a goal and looked lively on his return to the club, while Marcelino looks to have more attacking options overall this season, with Spain international Ayoze Pérez an exciting signing from Betis. Former Arsenal man Nicolas Pépé has also arrived while promising winger Yéremi Pino is fit again after a lengthy injury.  

Defensively, they do still have issues though and it was a really shaky debut from goalkeeper Diego Conde against Atleti.  

Given that, I’m using the #PickYourPunt tool to back Both teams to score and Double chance - Villarreal or draw at 11/8 here, a winning bet in seven of the Yellow Submarine’s final nine away league games last term. 

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

Getafe vs Rayo Vallecano (Saturday 20:30) 

Getafe and Rayo Vallecano meet in a local derby at the Coliseum this Saturday. Both sides got good results on the opening weekend in the Basque Country, with Rayo stunning Real Sociedad in the big upset of matchday one while Getafe picked up a really useful point in Bilbao. Whether those results are truly a sign of things to come is very doubtful though.  

Getafe are likely to again take to the field on Saturday without a recognised striker, with last season’s top scorer Borja Mayoral still unfit while they are yet to bring in competition for the 27-year-old. 

In their opening game, they went with new signing Chrisantus Uche, a defensive midfielder by trade, as their striker. The 21-year-old was playing third tier football with minnows Ceuta last season and failed to score a single goal, but to the surprise of everyone inside San Mamés, he scored a debut goal in his new role as Getafe left with a 1-1 draw. 

The South Madrid club won’t necessarily be counting on Uche to keep on delivering, but he is likely to start up top again here. José Bordalás’ side did look solid defensively in their opening game, which is the least you expect from his teams, but it’s hard to see them posing Rayo Vallecano too many problems in this match with their current attacking options. 

The visitors are heading into their first full season under the guidance of Iñigo Pérez and it was a really bright start with a 2-1 win at Real Sociedad. They do still have the feel of a team that is going to be short on firepower though. 

Winger Adri Embarba has rejoined the club, but he’s past his best at 32 and only managed three goals for relegated Almeria last term. They’ll be hoping for more from strikers Sergio Camello and Raúl de Tomás who scored a combined total of just four goals last term, but like Getafe, they also effectively named a midfielder as their main forward on matchday one with Randy Nteka leading the line in San Sebastián. 

With both sides short on convincing attacking options, this has all the makings of a really tight derby match. Four of the six meetings since Rayo’s promotion in 2021 have ended level, including three goalless clashes, and I’m backing the Draw at 15/8 here. 

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

Atlético Madrid vs Girona (Sunday 20:30) 

This has the potential to be the pick of the matchday two games in La Liga and it’s going to be interesting to watch how these teams develop over the coming weeks after very active summers. 

Girona finished above Atlético Madrid last season, but it may be an impossible task for them to repeat that feat. The spine of their successful 2023/24 team has been ripped apart with the likes of Aleix García, Savio and Artem Dovbyk no longer around. 

After some desperately poor pre-season results, they looked a shadow of their former selves for much of their opening game and trailed Real Betis for more than an hour at the Benito Villamarín. Míchel turned to his bench and rolled the dice with 19-year-old Gabriel Misehouy and 20-year-old Iker Almena coming on to make their La Liga debuts and the duo combined brilliantly for a fine equalising goal which secured a good point in the circumstances. 

Aided by the powerful City Football Group’s ability to unearth talent, Girona do have a strong track record when it comes to finding and developing young players, so we perhaps shouldn’t totally write the Catalan side off just yet. However, it will take time for Míchel to reconstruct a competitive team and they are likely to fall short on Sunday night in Madrid. 

There is real optimism at the Estadio Metropolitano after a summer of big spending. Atleti have made four big signings for a combined total of more than €180m. New arrivals Julián Alvarez, Conor Gallagher, Robin Le Normand and Alexander Sørloth are all likely to feature in Diego Simeone’s best eleven. 

They could all feature in this game, with Gallagher the latest to join following lengthy transfer negotiations with Chelsea. He may have to settle for a place on the bench on Sunday, but we should get the first glimpse of Atleti’s new forward-line in action together with Antoine Griezmann expected to operate behind Alvarez and Sørloth who grabbed a debut goal in the 2-2 draw at Villarreal on Monday. 

That has the potential to be a very exciting strike force that should score a lot of goals this season in La Liga. Given Girona’s natural attacking intent, this should be quite an open game but I can’t see any result other than a home victory and I’m backing Atlético Madrid to win and over 2.5 goals at 13/10. 

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...