Real Betis vs. Espanyol 6/25/20 LaLiga Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Real Betis is welcoming Espanyol to Benito Villamarin in part of round 31 of Spanish LaLiga.

Betis is in a terrible form and they have won only 1 of their last 10 games in LaLiga, and since the season restarted, Betis has 2 losses and 1 draw, 5 conceded goals, and only 3 scored goals. At least for now, Betis is in 14th place with 34 points, outside the relegation zone, but only by 8 points, and with 8 games left in the season, anything can happen to Betis. Offensively, Betis has been solid with 40 scored goals, but their defense has been really bad this season with 48 conceded goals. Loren Moron has scored 9 goals for Betis this season, while Joaquin added 8 goals. Moreno and Emerson both added 5 assists for Betis this season. Garcia and Joaquin are still questionable for this match. In their last LaLiga game against Athletic Bilbao on the road, Betis was a slightly better team with 57% of ball possession, 5 shots on goal, 5 corner kicks, and 82% of the correct passes. Betis was behind early, in the 7th minute when they conceded a goal, but just 4 minutes before the end of the game, Betis has a penalty kick to tie the game, but unfortunately for them, Canales missed and Betis has lost this game 1-0. Betis is the too good of a team to be in this slump for much longer, and with a little bit more focus on the defensive end, I have no doubt that Betis will start playing better soccer soon.

Espanyol is dead last in the standings with 24 points, 26 scored goals, and 49 conceded goals. Comparing to the beginning of the season, Espanyol is playing much better soccer and they are getting close to exiting the relegation zone, and they need to if they want to stay in LaLiga next season. Since the season restarted, Espanyol has 1 won, 1 draw, and 1 loss, 3 scored goals, and 3 conceded goals. In their last LaLiga match against Levante at home, Espanyol was solid with 46% of ball possession, 3 shots on goal, 8 corner kicks, and 76% of ball possession. The half time result was 1-1, but in the second half, Espanyol conceded 2 more goals and has lost this game 1-3. De Tomas and Lei are Espanyol’s top goal scorers with only 4 goals each, while Espinosa and Lopez added 3 goals. Corchia and Espinosa are both injured, while Cabrera is suspended because of the yellow cards. I wasn’t expecting from Espanyol to be this bad this season because they have more than an adequate team to be much, much higher than the last place. There is still enough time for Espanyol to make some changes to give themselves a shot at getting out of the relegation zone, but they must start winning points because they are 5 points away from safety.

The trends are on Espanyol’s side in this matchup, but neither of the teams is playing well, especially on the defensive end. Both teams could use a win, but Espanyol needs it more. I will take a stab at something on goals in this matchup just because the defenses are horrible on both sides.