Football – Spain – La Liga
Sunday 21st December 2014 – Kickoff: 1800hrs
In the second of my picks in the Spanish La Liga, bottom club Elche face a tough fixture against Malaga despite holding home advantage on Sunday evening.
Elche are without a win from their last five league matches and have lost their last three on the trot with defeats against Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid and Deportivo la Coruna, the latter being a bitter blow as they went in search of closing the gap on the teams above them.
As it stands, Elche are rock-bottom in La Liga with just 10 points to their name so far and just two wins all season to date. Their solitary home win came against Espanyol in a 2-1 win in early November but their four defeats so far were made worse by the fact that they failed to score in any of those losses.
Elche’s home record stands at 1-2-4 5/11.
Malaga secured another win in midweek when they beat Deportivo la Coruna 4-1 in the Copa del Rey and this welcome result was on the back of two league wins on the trot as they’d previously beaten Deportivo in the league 1-0 and a 1-0 home win over Celta Vigo.
Malaga have won seven of their last nine in La Liga and this impressive winning run was halted only by their two encounters against the teams from Madrid (Atletico and Real) but their away from has been pretty good overall so far.
An away record of 3-1-3 7/10 is better when you consider that they’ve won three of their last four on the road with wins at Cordoba, Real Sociedad and Deportivo la Coruna.
Elche continue to struggle at the foot of the division and I am confident that Malaga with momentum behind them have enough to at least avoid defeat here this afternoon. They could well take the honours in perhaps a 2-1 win but I recommend backing them with the round ball option.
Pick: Malaga AH0 @ 1.80 bet365
