Boring at Malaga and Levante but breathtaking at Sevilla

Malaga and Espanyol played out a Spanish Primera Division goalless draw in October and betting on another low-scoring game between the teams is the best way to attack the midweek program following the excitement of El Clasico on Sunday.

Real Madrid and Barcelona banged in seven goals between them in El Clasico but Malaga and Barca’s city rival, Espanyol, are in a different league when it comes to entertaining. The Spanish Primera Division’s top four sides have the top four defensive records but after Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bilbao comes Espanyol in spite of the Periquitos occupying the ninth rung of the ladder. Espanyol has given up just 34 in its 29 Spanish Primera Division matches but, even so, it has a negative goal difference between of its weak attack. Malaga is even worse than Espanyol at putting the ball into the back of the net, with its seventh-ranked defence keeping it out of serious relegation trouble.

Malaga and Espanyol had a total of 14 shots on target during their Spanish Primera Division game in Barcelona five months ago and still neither team managed to break the deadlock. As far as under-two-and-a-half-goals numbers, 19 of Malaga’s 29 Spanish Primera Division matches have gone under that line and 15 of Espanyol’s 29 top-flight games have been the toast of under punters. The Spanish Primera Division is a division that is very friendly to over punters so for both Malaga and Espanyol to be favouring under says a great deal about them.

Back Malaga, which is on a run of six consecutive Spanish Primera Division matches under two and a half goals, and Espanyol to combine for fewer than three goals at odds of 1.62 with BetVictor and Ladbrokes. An alternative is to back the negative option on the both-sides-to-score market at odds of 1.83 with the same two bookmakers. Malaga has not scored in four of its last six Spanish Primera Division home games, while Espanyol has fired blanks in seven of its last nine away matches across a variety of competitions.

Levante‘s encounter with Betis is another Spanish Primera Division game that may not scale any great heights, at least in terms of getting people out of their seats to cheer goals and other penalty-area incidents. Like Malaga and Espanyol, Levante and Betis played out a goalless draw earlier in the Spanish Primera Division season and that was in spite of the bottom team, Betis, playing with 10 men for 60 minutes.

Fans of Levante are probably happy with their side’s 10th place on the Spanish Primera Division ladder but, boy, the Granotes are a hard team to love. Levante’s 29 Spanish Primera Division matches have had a league-low average of 2.10 goals, with 18 of them going under two and a half goals. Only five times has Levante featured in a Spanish Primera Division game with more than three goals. The fact that Betis has copped a few floggings means that its 29 Spanish Primera Division games have averaged 2.79 goals. However, it is telling that Betis has featured in five goalless draws – one fewer than league-leading Levante – which suggests that it struggles to keep out the strong sides and that it struggles to put away the weak ones.

BetVictor and Ladbrokes are offering odds of 1.65 about the Spanish Primera Division match between Levante and Espanyol going under two and a half goals. Those seem like odds worth taking, as do the odds of 1.50 that Ladbrokes is laying about Sevilla and Real Madrid going over the line in their Spanish Primera Division game in the country’s south.

Real Madrid won what was a truly remarkable reverse Spanish Primera Division fixture. World record signing Gareth Bale scored two goals and set up two goals in Real’s 7-3 home defeat of Sevilla, with Cristiano Ronaldo notching another hat-trick and Karim Benzema helping himself to a brace.

Twenty-two of Real Madrid’s 29 Spanish Primera Division games have gone over two and a half goals, while 20 of Sevilla’s 29 top-flight matches have exceeded that line, so snap up the 1.50 on over 2.5 goals with Ladbrokes.