Spain says goodbye to the year with matchday 15 of La Liga and among the important games will be the one between Barcelona and Espanyol, the city derby.
Barcelona wants to finish the year as the leader of the tournament and arrives with a streak of 5 victories in a row in the competition.
For its part, Espanyol is very close to relegation and a defeat in this game can make it fall into the red zone.
When:
Saturday, December 31 at 8:00 am ET at the Camp Nou stadium
Moneyline odds:
Barcelona -418
Espanyol +991
Draw Offs:
+527
Where Can I Watch it?
Why Bet on Barcelona
It is the best team in the tournament. Barcelona has 12 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss in La Liga, being also the highest scorer (33) and the one that has conceded the least (5). Only 3 teams have been able to score against them: Real Madrid (3), Real Sociedad (1), and Osasuna (1). As if that were not enough, Robert Lewandowski is the tournament’s top scorer (13) and has a 5-goal difference over Vedat Muriqi (Mallorca) and Borja Iglesias (Betis). Precisely the Polish striker was sent off in the last game and will not be this Saturday.
The ‘Culés’ has done very well in the local tournament, where they have only lost to Real Madrid (3-1) and drew against Rayo Vallecano (0-0) in the first game. However, they suffered a huge disappointment in the Champions League, being eliminated in the group stage.
The team led by Xavi arrives to this game well rested, since they have not played since November 8 and did not play any friendly match. In this home season for the league, Barcelona has 6 wins and 1 draw.
Ousmane Dembélé and Jules Koundé, who played in the World Cup final, are already training with the team and could be there this Saturday.
Why Bet on Espanyol
Very bad tournament for Espanyol. They barely have 12 points with 2 wins, 6 draws, and 6 losses, scoring 16 goals and conceding 22. They are only 1 point above Sevilla and Cádiz, which are 18th and 19th. That means that if they don’t win this Saturday, they could enter the relegation zone directly, and it must be remembered that this is just their second season in the first division after being relegated in 2019/20.
A few days ago, the team returned to action and beat CD Atlético Paso, from the fourth division, by 0-1 for the Copa del Rey. Despite being a win as a visitor, it was a very bad image that the team left against a much inferior rival.
Despite everything, it has been a good season for Joselu, who has scored 7 goals, almost half the goals of the entire team. Martin Braithwaite, who was in the World Cup with Denmark, knows that he must improve to help his team climb the table, and he hopes to do it against his former club and a group of fans that criticized him a lot.
Final Betting Analysis: Barcelona vs. Espanyol
Although derbies are always a game apart and are played differently, this Barcelona is far superior to Espanyol, who have not shown anything this season, and it would take a miracle for Xavi’s men not to win at Camp Nou, for that we believe will be the winners.
At MyBookie.ag we find that Barcelona is the favorite of the match with a Moneyline of -418, while Espanyol has +991 and the draw is +527.
The last time they met was on February 13 of this year and they were 2-2 thanks to a goal from Luuk de Jong at minute 90+6. Espanyol have not won in 10 games when they did it 1-0 in the 2018 Copa del Rey quarterfinals, although they ended up losing 2-1 on aggregate. At Camp Nou, Barcelona has won the last 14 games they have played against each other.
Go for a straight win for Barcelona in the Moneyline. If you bet $100 on the win at -418, you will gain $24 for a total payout of $124.
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