Weekend La Liga Betting Tips: Best Bets from Matchday 24

It was a tough week for our La Liga expert Mark Sochon last time out going 0 for 3 for his Best Bets of the Weekend column, but you can't win them all!

He's back on the horse this weekend as he picks out his Best Bets from Matchday 24 this Friday night and with two games on Saturday...

The top of the table clash between Real Madrid and Girona is the headline act in La Liga this weekend but there’s plenty going on elsewhere including Atletico Madrid’s trip to struggling Sevilla.

The matchday kicks off with a Friday night Andalusian derby between Cadiz and Real Betis, while it concludes with Almeria hoping to win a game at the 24th time of asking against high flying Athletic Club.

Cadiz vs Real Betis (Friday 20:00)

This game sees two of La Liga’s draw specialists meet. Cadiz and Real Betis have both drawn 11 of their 23 fixtures, which is the joint highest figure in the division and there’s plenty of reason to think this game may also end up all square.

It’s Cadiz’s third match since they opted to replace their boss Sergio with former Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino. The 52 year old arrived with a defensive reputation and 0-0 draws in his opening two games suggest we shouldn’t expect too much excitement from his new team.

He doesn’t have a great amount to work with in truth. Cadiz were already the lowest scorers in La Liga and they are a team badly lacking in terms of creativity and obvious goal threats. However their ability to keep clean sheets against Villarreal and Athletic, two of the six highest scoring teams in the Spanish top flight, suggests Pellegrino has at least got this team organised defensively.

Betis are a much superior team but they are missing their best player with Isco sidelined for around a month after picking up an injury in last weekend’s home draw against Getafe. The former Real Madrid player has been a revelation this term, after several very poor years where he looked a spent force at the very top level.

They do at least have fresh attacking cover after a very active end to the transfer window, with Chimy Avila joining from Osasuna and Cedric Bakambu arriving from Galatasaray while the paperwork finally got sorted for Pablo Fornals’ move from West Ham this week.

With Isco missing, Fornals could even go straight into the team, but it might take time for things to click in an attacking sense with their main creative force missing and with some new players integrating into the team. Betis have drawn over half of their away league fixtures this term and I’m backing the Draw here at 11/5 with Cadiz likely to keep things tight again.

Alaves vs Villarreal (Saturday 13:00)

Villarreal head into this game unbeaten in three matches and with the first real signs that they may just be starting to turn a corner in an otherwise disappointing season.

Their 5-3 win at Barcelona a fortnight ago was a timely reminder that there is a good side in there somewhere and they’ve been boosted by a number of January signings with Eric Bailly, Goncalo Guedes, Yerson Mosquera and Bertrand Traore all joining up with Marcelino’s squad.

While they were frustrated by a very defensive Cadiz side in a goalless draw last week, this one is likely to be a bit more open. Alaves carry a greater goal threat and while they’re still a relatively conservative team, they do at least attempt to play on the front foot at home, as we saw last weekend when they caused problems for Barcelona before sinking to a 3-1 defeat.

In-form striker Samu Omorodion grabbed their goal and will be their main threat again here. It’s not a convincing Villarreal defence by any means, but they do have two tall centre backs in the shape of Jorge Cuenca and Raul Albiol which should help them deal with the aerial threat of the powerful forward.

While Alaves are currently two points above their opponents, they are over-achieving a bit relative to the quality in their squad and their recent three game winning streak was largely the result of them playing against three struggling and badly out of form sides.

This will be tougher and the extra quality the visiting team have on the ball with the likes of Gerard Moreno and Alex Baena should be enough to ensure the visitors get a result.

With 87% of Villarreal’s league games this season producing two or more goals, I’m using the #PickYourPunt tool to back Villarreal or Draw Double Chance and Over 1.5 Goals at 5/4.

Las Palmas vs Valencia (Saturday 20:00)

This is a meeting of two teams who have surprised many this season with Las Palmas and Valencia both in the top half and potentially eyeing up a late European push when many expected them to be fighting at the bottom end of the league.

Valencia only guaranteed survival on the final weekend last term and despite limited investment, Ruben Baraja has done a great job of bringing young players through. They doubled down on the youth approach by selling their most experienced defender Gabriel Paulista to Atletico Madrid in January, but they failed to bring anyone in during the transfer window.

While they’re in great form overall, Valencia’s young side has tended to fall just short and at times crumble completely in the tougher away games. Heading into the weekend, they’ve collected just one point away to teams currently in the top twelve of the league.

With Las Palmas riding high in 9th, they can expect a tough game on Saturday. Despite a lengthy absence from the top flight, the Canary Islanders have looked right at home on their return to La Liga and they’ve stayed true to their patient passing game no matter who the opponent has been.

They’ve suffered only three home defeats and two of those were against Real Madrid and Barcelona in games they only narrowly lost 2-1 having taken the lead in both. They’ve beaten the likes of Atletico Madrid and Villarreal on this ground and held Real Sociedad and are expected to have their strongest eleven available for this game.

With not much to choose between the teams in the Match Result market, I can see value in backing Las Palmas 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...