Deportivo Alaves vs. Barcelona 7/19/20 LaLiga Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Deportivo Alaves is welcoming Barcelona to Estadio de Mendizorroza in round 38 in Spanish LaLiga.

Deportivo has secured their LaLiga spot for next season with a nice win against Betis a few days ago, and boy, are they relived. Betis is in 15th place in the standings with 39 points, 4 points above the relegation zone, and with this game being the last of the season, Alaves is safe whatever happens in this match. In the said game against Betis, Alaves has had only 28% of ball possession, 4 shots on goal, 5 corner kicks, and low 69% of the correct passes. Despite being the weaker team in this game, by far I might add, Deportivo Alaves has scored 2 goals in the second half and has won this match 1-2. This was Deportivo’s second win since the restart, and after 6 straight losses and 1 draw, I bet it felt absolutely amazing, and after they realized that with this win Deportivo secured their LaLiga status, there is no doubt that they celebrated for a while. Deportivo has scored only 34 goals so far this season and they are one of the weakest offensive teams in LaLiga, while their defense hasn’t been the worst, but it hasn’t been good also. Deportivo has conceded 54 goals. Perez and Joselu have both scored 11 goals for Deportivo this season, while Perez also added 5 assists. Pacheco and Duarte are still injured, while Gutierrez and Navarro are both still questionable. Deportivo could still move up or down in the standings, but it doesn’t matter because they are staying in LaLiga.

It’s official, Barcelona has lost their last LaLiga game, and with that, they lost the title race. Even if Barcelona won their game against Osasuna a few days ago, it wouldn’t matter because Real Madrid had to lose their game against Villarreal, which didn’t happen. Barcelona is in second place with 79 points, 81 scored goals, and 38 conceded goals, and they will stay there because Atletico Madrid can’t catch up to them. Barcelona has dropped too many points this season, especially after the restart. The consistency was the big problem for Barcelona, and I think it even got worse after Setien became the head coach. Barcelona’s management is saying that he will stay the head coach, but I think Messi will have the final say in that decision. Messi is the top goal scorer both in Barcelona and LaLiga with 23 goals and 20 assists. Suarez added 15 goals and 8 assists. Dembele and Griezmann are injured, while Umtiti is still questionable. Normally, I would think that Barcelona will shuffle their starting eleven for this game since it’s the last game and they have nothing to gain or lose, but I don’t think Setien will make a lot of changes because they need a win here to keep their dignity and get back on the winning track before the Champions League starts next month. Better luck next season, and please hire a better coach, there are a lot of them out there.

Barcelona hasn’t lost any of their last 7 games against Alaves, and they haven’t lost any of their last 5 away games. I’m not sure what to expect here as none of the teams needs anything, but maybe now that the pressure is off, Barcelona will play better soccer.