Midweek Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from La Liga for MD36

An Isco goal at 7/4 headlined the Best Bets column for Matchday 35 in La Liga as our Spanish Football Mark Sochon keeps coming up with a good bet or two each week.

We have a full slate of action from Spain from Tuesday through to Thursday and once more he has picked out his three Best Bets. They all look like they are trading at tempting prices. Check out his Midweek Football Betting Tips below...

La Liga rolls into a full midweek matchday as the Spanish top flight season enters the final fortnight. A weekend victory for Cádiz has made life at the bottom a bit more interesting and there are a host of teams bidding to secure safety over the next few days.

Osasuna vs Mallorca (Tuesday 18:30)

One of the teams in relegation danger is Mallorca. They did beat Las Palmas at the weekend, relegating Granada in the process, but they remain six points clear of the relegation zone. Mathematically, they need four more to guarantee safety and with a home game against bottom club Almería to come this weekend, there’s not really any pressure on them to chase maximum points here.

Javier Aguirre, a veteran of many a relegation battle, is unlikely to veer from his standard approach which is to set up in quite a defensive manner and play with three centre backs.

It’s not an approach that has been yielding many positive results on the road this season. Mallorca have won just one of their 17 games away from the Balearic Islands in La Liga, scoring just 13 times on their travels.

To make matters worse, they are missing their joint top scorer and key target man Vedat Muriqi to suspension on Tuesday night in Pamplona. That should serve up an opportunity to Abdón Prats who is a bit of a cult figure in Mallorca. The 31-year-old boasts not only La Liga’s best moustache, but a knack for scoring important goals and he has come in useful this term, largely because big money summer signing Cyle Larin has been a huge disappointment, scoring just twice.

Osasuna will feel pretty confident in their ability to cope with whatever Mallorca throw at them though. They’ve been in a really poor run of form themselves with little to play for and key men such as David García and top scorer Ante Budimir sidelined, but we did see a much improved display from them in Bilbao at the weekend.

Were it not for a 96th minute equaliser from Athletic’s Asier Villalibre, Osasuna would have left San Mamés with all three points, with goals from Raúl García and Rubén García putting them 2-0 up in the game before a Second Half rally from their top four chasing hosts.

They’re hoping to have a few more players back from injury for this one with Budimir potentially in contention to play and given Mallorca’s really poor away record, I like the look of Osasuna Draw No Bet at 4/5.

Girona vs Villarreal (Tuesday 21:00)

There may not be a huge amount still at stake at the top end of La Liga, but this one could be well worth tuning in for with Girona and Villarreal two of the most entertaining sides in the division and two of the best.

The league table may suggest that Villarreal are having a pretty disappointing season and that’s certainly true overall, but they’ve made massive strides forward in 2024 under Marcelino, their third boss of the season.

The Yellow Submarine have won eight of their last 14 league games, losing just twice in that period and failing to score on just one occasion. That run has included a 5-3 victory in Barcelona, a 3-1 win at Real Sociedad and a 3-2 triumph at Real Betis, so they certainly won’t fear a trip to Montilivi and this could be one of Girona’s most difficult home assignments in a hugely impressive season for the Catalan side.

They are now guaranteed Champions League football but are still motivated by the chance to finish in 2nd place and above local rivals Barcelona which would also earn them a trip to next season’s Supercopa.

Girona average a huge 2.71 goals per home game this term in La Liga with their free-scoring ways firing them towards the very summit. They are so strong on the flanks with attack-minded full backs supporting dangerous wingers Savio and Viktor Tsygankov and they are capable of causing plenty of problems in this game with the visitors short on full backs right now with Juan Foyth, Alberto Moreno and Alfonso Pedraza all carrying injuries.

That should serve up plenty of opportunities for the division’s top scorer Artem Dovbyk who has 20 goals but Villarreal’s Alexander Sørloth is only one behind in the Pichichi race having netted 11 times in his last 10 league matches.

With those two on the pitch and with the visitors needing to chase the win to cling onto their slim European hopes, this game surely guarantees goals and I’m backing Both Teams to Score 2 or More at 9/4, a winning bet in each of Villarreal’s last two matches, as well as each of Girona’s last two.

Celta Vigo vs Athletic Club (Wednesday 21:00)

Celta Vigo are down to 17th in La Liga again after losing to Atlético Madrid at the weekend, while all of their main relegation rivals picked up positive results. They have a five point cushion on the drop-zone but they won’t want to rely on favours from elsewhere with 18th placed Cádiz having a relatively favourable set of remaining fixtures.

The Galicians will fancy they can get something from this game. Athletic have had a brilliant season but they’ve gone off the boil since winning the Copa del Rey, with just one victory in six league games, all but ending their chances of qualifying for the Champions League.

They’ve only kept one clean sheet in that period and that was a miraculous feat given they were down to nine men at Getafe and allowed their opponents to have a huge 34 shots in the game.

Defensively, some errors have certainly crept in and they’ve been hampered by injuries and suspensions too, with another unconvincing weekend display seeing them draw 2-2 at home to Osasuna.

There’s plenty to encourage Celta Vigo who have scored seven goals in their last two home games with veteran forward Iago Aspas scoring or assisting six of those as Las Palmas and Villarreal were brushed aside as the Galicians claimed key victories in their fight for survival.

Anyone who has been following Spanish football over the past 15 years will not be surprised. Aspas scoring important late season goals to rescue his beloved Celta Vigo can be placed in the same bracket as Real Madrid coming back from the dead to win Champions League ties. It’s just what happens at this time of year.

Aspas’ first two Celta Vigo goals kept his local club up in dramatic fashion on the final day of the 2008/09 season. 15 years and more than 200 goals later, the now 36 year old is still doing the business, scoring seven times since the turn of the year and looking more at home in his new role under the recently appointed Claudio Giráldez than was the case under Rafa Benítez.

Given his knack for rising to the occasion on nights like this, I’m backing Iago Aspas to score anytime at 2/1.

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...