Weekend La Liga Betting Tips: Best Bets for Matchday 22

We have a full slate of ten La Liga matches between Friday and Monday evening. Our Spanish football expert Mark Sochon has picked out his three Best Bets over the weekend...

La Liga heads into the last weekend of January with Girona still on top of the table and showing no signs that they’re in any mood to go away quietly and let the usual suspects fight it out for the title.

The top two are both on the road this weekend, while elsewhere hapless Almeria have a decent opportunity to finally win their first game of the season. There’s also a new boss at struggling Cadiz with former Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino hosting Athletic in his first fixture.

Almeria vs Alaves (Friday 20:00)

Almeria are still winless heading into their 22nd league game of the season. They are definitely going down but they’ve shown in their last two matches against the top two teams in the league that they are not nearly as bad as their league position suggests.

Gaizka Garitano’s side were in control against Girona in their last home game for virtually the full ninety minutes, but couldn’t finish any of their chances, despite having 20 attempts on goal, in a game that ended 0-0.

They then went to the Bernabeu and raced into a 2-0 lead last Sunday. However a controversial Second Half left the Almeria bench fuming as a host of borderline decisions went Real Madrid’s way as Los Blancos came back to win 3-2 with a 99th minute winner. If they can repeat the level they found in those games, Almeria have a really good chance of being the dominant force in this match.

Alaves aren’t great travellers and have only kept one clean sheet all season on the road in La Liga. They have won their last two league games, but they were against Cadiz and Sevilla who have not been playing well and the Basque side are flattered slightly by their current 12th place with Luis Garcia’s team still in the relegation picture.

They’re not a team that usually takes many risks, but they may sense an opportunity to pick up a rare away win here and that should also help to open this game up. That may be no bad thing for Almeria who will look to the likes of Adri Embarba and Sergio Arribas to exploit the space.

I’m still a bit hesitant about backing a team that has gone so long without winning to actually get over the line though and put three points on the board. Instead I’m using the #PickYourPunt tool to back Almeria Over 0.5 Goals and Almeria Over 3.5 Corners at 5/6.

Real Sociedad vs Rayo Vallecano (Saturday 13:00)

Real Sociedad lost the Basque derby against Athletic Club earlier this month and it looked like it might be quite a tricky period for them with their most creative player Take Kubo away at the Asian Cup with Japan.

However La Real have responded well to that setback with three straight away wins including two victories in Vigo in the space of four days as they claimed maximum points in the league

before advancing into the Copa del Rey Semi-Finals. January signing Sheraldo Becker scored a decisive breakaway second goal on Tuesday night and they are carrying just enough of a goal threat to break down most teams, even in Kubo’s absence.

It’s hard to see many goals in this match. There have been under 3.5 in all of Real Sociedad’s last 14 games in all competitions. Defensively they look really solid right now and getting on the scoresheet will be no easy task for a misfiring Rayo Vallecano side.

Rayo have failed to score in five of their last six league games and their chances aren’t helped here by the suspension of pacy wideman Alvaro Garcia. He’s their top scorer with four goals and no other Rayo player has netted more than twice in the league which tells you all you need to know about how poor a season their strikers are having.

Club record signing Raul De Tomas has been the biggest disappointment. He scored 17 goals in La Liga 2021/22 for Espanyol but has failed to net in 15 appearances this term for Rayo while fellow forward Sergio Camello has fired blanks in all but one league game.

As a result, I can’t see much joy in front of goal for the visitors in this one and I’m backing Real Sociedad and Under 3.5 Goals at 21/20.

Celta Vigo vs Girona (Sunday 13:00)

There’s not much to choose between Celta Vigo and Girona in the Win Market for this game which is a bit surprising given they are separated by 15 places and a massive 35 points in the league table.

While it’s true that Celta’s performances have often been better than their results, there are still some fundamental flaws that have contributed to them hovering only just above the relegation zone midway through their first season under Rafa Benitez.

They certainly went into the campaign with much higher aspirations, but all too often they’ve paid the price for not being clinical enough and statistically they are wildly under-performing in terms of their ability to turn chances into goals.

To the bemusement of many Celta fans, Benitez has been reluctant to start summer signing Anastasios Douvikas who has shown in the Copa del Rey what a good finisher he is. The Greek is onto nine goals in all competitions, but has only started three league games.

There’s a good chance this will go the same way as many recent Celta games in that we may see quite an even match, but one that Girona edges by virtue of their superior ability to convert chances.

Michel’s team were awful at Almeria a fortnight ago, but they still salvaged a draw from that game and they bounced back in style by thumping Sevilla 5-1 with Artem Dovbyk scoring a hat-trick in the opening twenty minutes. That’s 14 for the season for the Ukraine international who is now level with Jude Bellingham as La Liga’s joint top scorer.

Girona should be in a position to name their strongest eleven for several weeks here with key midfielder Aleix Garcia available after suspension while Eric Garcia is back from injury and should play in central defence. With Savio and Viktor Tsyhankov operating on the flanks, I can see them having too much firepower for Celta in this game and I’m going with Girona Draw No Bet at 4/5.

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...