Weekend La Liga Betting Tips: Best Bets for Matchday 23

Our La Liga expert went one for three last week in his Best Bets column but you can't win every week I suppose.

He's back with his thoughts and picks out his three to play ahead of Matchday 23 in Spain...

After a few rearranged midweek fixtures, everyone in La Liga will have played their full quota of 22 matches heading into this weekend. With the Madrid derby on Sunday, Girona are hoping to cling onto top spot ahead of a huge trip to the Santiago Bernabeu next weekend.

At the bottom, the situation is looking bleaker than ever for Almeria and Granada while things aren’t much more promising at Cadiz who changed their coach in January but have now gone five months without a league victory.

Granada vs Las Palmas (Saturday 15:15)

This is a meeting of the two teams who were automatically promoted from the Segunda Division in 2023. Granada came up as champions, but it’s Las Palmas who have looked far more comfortable at this level.

Their possession-based approach has translated well into life in La Liga and boss Garcia Pimienta will be delighted with a return of 31 points so far which leaves them in the top half and on the fringes of the race for European places.

While that may be a bridge too far for a Las Palmas side that doesn’t carry a huge goal threat, they’re a confident team right now and they’ve shown they can go away and win games with victories over Alaves and Rayo Vallecano in December and January respectively.

In contrast to a settled Las Palmas side that knows exactly what it wants to do, it has been chaotic throughout at Granada. Paco Lopez’s attacking style of play left them overrun defensively in the opening months of the campaign as they quickly plummeted towards the bottom of the table.

He was dismissed in November and replacement Alexander Medina has adopted a more conservative approach but has struggled to get the best out of his attacking players with Granada heading into this without a goal in three league outings, all of which ended in defeat.

To make matters even worse, star player Bryan Zaragoza, an electric winger who tore into Barcelona earlier this season, completed a deadline day move to Bayern Munich. He’d already agreed to join the German giants in the summer but his departure was fast tracked in what might just be the final nail in Granada’s coffin.

Granada are still the favourites to win this game, but with only two league victories to date, I’m not convinced they are truly worthy of that status and I’m backing Las Palmas Draw No Bet at 5/4.

Girona vs Real Sociedad (Saturday 20:00)

With the exception of Sunday’s Madrid derby, this is the standout fixture in La Liga on matchday 23 and it’s a real test of Girona’s title credentials against a strong Real Sociedad side.

There is still no real sign that Girona’s bubble is going to burst. They did have an off day against bottom club Almeria in January when they were very fortunate to scrape a 0-0 draw. That could have sparked a downturn in their form, but they’ve responded really well with back-to-back league victories, hammering Sevilla 5-1 before winning 1-0 in Vigo last weekend.

Having beaten the likes of Barcelona and Atletico Madrid over the past couple of months, scoring four in each game, they’ve no reason to fear Real Sociedad, although Imanol’s top four hopefuls are one of the few teams to have taken points off the Catalans so far this season.

Real Sociedad are not at their best right now though. They created almost nothing in a drab goalless home draw against Rayo Vallecano last weekend and are missing the creative influence of Take Kubo who is still away on Asian Cup duty with Japan and won’t play in this game.

They also have big problems at full back with their two main left backs, Kieran Tierney and Aihen Muñoz, out injured. Things aren’t any better on the right side of the defence with Hamari Traore on AFCON duty and Aritz Elustondo a major injury doubt.

New signing Javi Galan, who has played very little football this term having been frozen out by Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, should start on the left while B team player Jon Aramburu should continue at right back.

That could leave them really vulnerable against a Girona side that is outstanding in wide areas. They play with two attack-minded full backs who combine well with wingers Savio and Viktor Tsyhankov who are both enjoying excellent seasons.

Overall, I’d expect Girona to offer much more in the final third in this game and I’m backing Girona to Win at 11/10.

Villarreal vs Cadiz (Sunday 13:00)

It has been a desperately poor domestic season for Villarreal who remain closer to the relegation zone than the European places, but they finally had something to cheer last weekend with a stunning 5-3 win at Barcelona.

It has taken a bit of time for Marcelino, appointed in November, to stamp his mark on this team but the Villarreal boss will be hoping last weekend’s victory can prove something of a turning point.

This will be a very different kind of game, against a cautious Cadiz side that has the worst goalscoring record in the division and drew their opening game under new boss Mauricio Pellegrino 0-0 at home to Athletic Club last weekend.

There were some positives in that display but it was a quiet January at the Estadio Nuevo Mirandilla and they look desperately short on the kind of firepower that might be needed to fire them to safety. Judging by Villarreal’s campaign to date, the visitors may get chances courtesy of defensive errors in this game but Cadiz are missing regulars Ruben Alcaraz and Fali to suspension with a number of other important players sidelined through injury.

If Villarreal can play anywhere near as well in attacking areas as they did against Barcelona, they should be too strong for this Cadiz side. New signing Goncalo Guedes, who was on target in the win at the Estadi Olimpic, gives them a fresh option out wide and is a good fit for Marcelino’s style of play while there aren’t many better strike pairings in La Liga than Gerard Moreno and Alexander Sorloth who also both scored last weekend.

Overall, the hosts should have too much attacking quality for struggling opposition here and I’m backing Villarreal to Win and Over 1.5 Goals at Evens.

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...