Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from La Liga for Matchday 37

Mark Sochon had a couple of bigger prices in his Best Bets column from La Liga in midweek but alas they both came up short.

He's back again looking for a strong Matchday 37 as he offers up his three best betting selections from across La Liga this weekend in his Football Betting Tips column for this weekend...

It’s the penultimate weekend in La Liga. There are some big games in the battle for survival, as well as a key clash between Real Betis and Real Sociedad in the race for Europa League football.

However, there are also a number of effectively meaningless games with punters needing to pay close attention to team news this weekend with lots of potential for rotation and surprise selections.

Alavés vs Getafe (Saturday 20:00)

This is the only game taking place on Saturday and it has no impact on anything with the exception of a late season jostle for mid table positions. The momentum is certainly with Alavés who have taken 10 points from their last five league games to propel themselves up the table and they’d move into the top half with victory here.

That’s despite a 5-0 defeat at Real Madrid in midweek in what was a classic case of a game where the scoreline didn’t quite tell the whole story. While their defending was questionable at times, Alavés had 18 attempts with Thibaut Courtois needing to make 10 saves. No goalkeeper in Europe’s top five leagues this season has made more stops without conceding in one match.

Alavés had been on a really good run prior to that, winning three straight games to nil before holding high-flying Girona to a 2-2 draw at Mendizorroza. Luis García opted to make a lot of changes for the trip to Madrid in midweek so he will have fresh legs to bring in with a return to the kind of eleven that was largely responsible for that excellent winning run likely.

Getafe by contrast went strong in midweek but were still on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline at home to Atlético Madrid with Antoine Griezmann scoring all the goals. It doesn’t feel like Pepe Bordalás has a great deal of faith in his back-up players so we’re likely to see a similar eleven here despite three straight defeats.

In truth, Getafe’s season has been petering out ever since they lost 15-goal striker Borja Mayoral to injury in early March. They’ve picked up just eight points from nine games since then, scoring only five times and three of those goals came against bottom club Almería.

There is no quick fix to their issues and with the home team playing pretty well and looking far less like a side that has one eye on their summer holidays than their opponents do, I’m backing Alavés to win at 11/10.

Atlético Madrid vs Osasuna (Sunday 18:00)

As a result of their 3-0 win at Getafe in midweek, Atlético Madrid extended their impressive record of qualifying for the Champions League in every full season since Diego Simeone took charge more than a decade ago.

While their current 4th place would still represent their lowest finishing position since 2012, Atleti deserve some credit for reeling off four straight wins and they’ll be looking to take a bit of momentum into next season by winning their final two as well.

This is a game they will fancy with Osasuna out of sorts and winless in six league outings. Their long serving boss Jagoba Arrasate announced his decision to step down in the summer a number of weeks back. From the outside at least, it feels as though some of his players have taken their foot slightly off the gas since then.

An injury to top scorer Ante Budimir has also been a big factor in their recent struggles. The Croatian has netted 40% of his team’s goals so it’s no surprise that he has been missed but he was fit enough to take his place on the bench against Mallorca in midweek.

That suggests he may play some part in this game and Osasuna may fancy their chances of getting on the scoresheet, particularly given Atleti are missing first choice centre backs José María Giménez and Axel Witsel to suspension.

However, with Antoine Griezmann heading into the game after a midweek hat-trick and with Los Rojiblancos boasting an impressive 89% win ratio at home in the league this season, there should only really be one winner and I’m going with Atlético Madrid and Over 2.5 Goals at 21/20.

Valencia vs Girona (Sunday 18:00)

While Real Madrid will take the headlines and most of the silverware, Girona have largely been the big story in Spanish football this season and they’ve got Champions League action to look forward to next term as a result.

They could still finish anywhere between 2nd and 4th and the chance to make a little bit more history by breaking up the “big three” will provide plenty of motivation over the final couple of games.

Girona have only taken one point from two games since they saw off Barcelona 4-2 in the Catalan derby to secure a top four finish. It hasn’t really been a case of them relaxing and easing off with their mission accomplished though.

While they weren’t at their best in the 2-2 draw against Alavés, they were much the better team against Villarreal on Tuesday and spurned a host of good chances in a game that ended 1-0 to the Yellow Submarine.

They’ve had an extra couple of days off to prepare for this in comparison to Valencia who played on Thursday night, so there’s not really much need for Míchel to rest players and we should see a strong Girona eleven take to the field at Mestalla with no major absentees expected, although full back Yan Couto has been unwell.

Mestalla was something of a fortress for Valencia for much of this season but that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Real Betis and Alavés have both won here over the last month and it’s just one point from five games for Los Che overall with their unlikely European challenge ending in defeat at Real Sociedad in midweek.

Valencia boss Rubén Baraja wasn’t exactly in an upbeat mood afterwards with the words “I may want to have a ferrari, but if have to drive a skoda” the standout remarks from a feisty post game interview that was perhaps as much a dig at the owners and the unrealistic expectations of some fans, as it was his team.

Even so, it was hardly a ringing endorsement of his players who have gone three games without scoring this month with top scorer Hugo Duro carrying an injury. He’s rated doubtful again for this one and all things considered, the visitors look much the more likely winners and I’m backing Girona to win at 13/10.

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...