Weekend Football Betting Tips: Best Bets from La Liga for Matchday 29

Our Spanish Football expert Mark Sochon was on his way to a very profitable week for Matchday 28 before a 95th minute equaliser for Almeria at home to Sevilla scuppered that 11/8 away win play.

Hopefully any late drama goes in our favour throughout the games in Matchday 29 as he brings us his Best Bets for La Liga in his Weekend Football Betting Tips this week...

There are just ten matchdays to go in La Liga and following a surprise Cadiz win over Atlético Madrid last weekend, things are suddenly looking more interesting at the bottom of the table and in the race for 4th place.

We’ve had two sackings this week with Rafa Benitez departing Celta Vigo and Gaizka Garitano leaving Almeria as we head into the final round of fixtures before the international break.

Athletic Club vs Alaves (Saturday 20:00)

There aren’t many tougher away assignments in European football right now than a trip to Bilbao. Athletic are unbeaten in 16 home matches in all competitions, winning 13 of them. They could even afford to make seven changes and still get a result against Barcelona in their last outing at San Mames.

When Athletic are at their best, they are almost unplayable. With the Williams brothers both enjoying fine seasons on the flanks, they play with too much intensity and energy for almost anyone that comes to this ground, aided by one of the noisiest fanbases in La Liga.

Athletic fans haven’t had it this good for a number of years. They have a Copa del Rey Final against Mallorca to look forward to which may serve up an overdue major trophy while they’re fighting hard to end a ten-year wait for Champions League football.

There’s little reason to see their challenge faltering here. They’ve already defeated Basque rivals Alaves 2-0 on two occasions this season. Athletic are also fresh from a midweek rest on the back of a 2-0 win at Las Palmas last weekend.

They’re expected to have all of their main attacking players available with Gorka Guruzeta doing an excellent job of leading the line in an effective 4-2-3-1 system that hasn’t let Athletic down at home since August.

Alaves are having a solid season on their return to the top flight but they may struggle to live with their in-form hosts over the course of 90 minutes. As a result, I’m backing Over 1.5 Home Goals at 4/5 which has been a winning bet on 14 occasions during Athletic’s current 16 game unbeaten run at San Mames.

Las Palmas vs Almeria (Sunday 15:15)

Almeria go in search of a first victory of the season at the 29th time of asking on Sunday and they’ll be hoping leaving the mainland behind and hopping on a plane to the Canary Islands can spark a change of luck.

They’ve also rolled the dice and made their second managerial switch of the season. It’s perhaps a surprise it took so long, given Gaizka Garitano spent five winless months at the helm. In Garitano’s defence, Almeria have at least looked like a team with a plan over the past couple of months and they’ve played some decent football, but have all too often got into winning positions only to throw away leads, with the latest incident of that being Monday’s home game against Sevilla.

Recent additions Jonathan Viera and Luka Romero have helped increase their attacking threat and with the more attack-minded Pepe Mel the choice to replace Garitano until the end of the season, it’s likely we’ll see Almeria look to play positively in these final weeks and try to get those players on the ball as much as possible.

Both Mel and Viera are returning to their former club here, which will add a little bit of spice to the occasion. Jonathan Viera was Las Palmas’ star player for a number of years in the Segunda División and he’ll be hungry to perform back in his hometown after a big fallout with Las Palmas boss Garcia Pimienta led to his departure earlier this term.

The hosts are the odds on favourites but they are stuttering a bit and the gulf in quality between these two sides is nowhere near as great as the league table suggests. In fact, there are various xG metrics that claim Almeria should be above Las Palmas in the table and certainly not 27 points worse off.

Even under the relatively cautious Garitano, Almeria seemed to accept that attack was often their best form of defence and that’s even more likely to be the case under Mel. An open game looks fairly probable as a result and I’m backing Both Teams to Score at 4/5.

Rayo Vallecano vs Real Betis (Sunday 17:30)

These are worrying times for Rayo Vallecano who are bottom of the form table in La Liga with just three points from their last eight games and they also have the second worst home record in the division with only 10 points and one victory this season in the league in Vallecas.

The club made a really bold move in February by replacing Francisco with the inexperienced Iñigo Perez who took on his first managerial job and in doing so became the youngest coach in the league at the age of 36.

Four games into his reign, things have not really picked up and Perez has encountered many of the same problems as his predecessor with Rayo still struggling badly in the final third with just one goal from open play since the change. They’re favourites for this game but they do little to justify that status in truth.

Betis are a team in transition following a busy January when the likes of Pablo Fornals, Johnny Cardoso, Chimy Avila and Cedric Bakambu arrived, largely funded by the big money sale of winger Luiz Henrique to Brazilian club Botafogo.

The Seville side will feel like they did some smart business and they were on a decent five game unbeaten run in the league before back-to-back defeats against Atlético Madrid and in-form Villarreal halted their progress.

They were perhaps a bit unfortunate to lose an entertaining game 3-2 against the Yellow Submarine last time out, but they’ll be in better shape defensively on Sunday with key centre-back German Pezzella available again after suspension.

Midfielder Guido Rodriguez has also recently returned from injury, while Isco, their standout performer this term, is back in training and may even feature off the bench. With Rayo struggling to convince under new management and winless at home in six months, I like the look of Real Betis Draw No Bet at 11/10 here.

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...