Football – Spain – La Liga
Saturday 13th September 2014 – Kickoff: 1800hrs
Next up is a quick look at the Spanish La Liga with the season still in it’s early stages, my first match focuses on a bottom half clash between Malaga and Levante at the Estadio La Rosaleda on Saturday evening.
Malaga started their new La Liga campaign off with a bang when they beat Athetic Bilbao 2-0 at home against a side that finished fourth at the end of last season and who therefore made it through to the Champions League qualifiers as a result. A good effort then for Malaga who themselves finished in a mid-table position.
However, a 0-3 defeat away at Valencia before the international break means that they’ll be wanting to bounce back with a win here today, against a side that they’ll fancy taking three points off particularly with home advantage. In fact, Malaga have won the last three home encounters against Levante 1-0, 3-1 and 1-0 respectively.
Visitors Levante finished just one place and three points above today’s hosts at the end of last season, but no doubt they’ll be wanting to improve upon last season’s away record of 5-6-8 16/27 for this campaign.
A lack of goals on the road was their undoing last term where they finished the 5th lowest goalscorers away from home in La Liga, and they’ve registered just two away wins from their last fifteen away matches.
In addition, Levante had failed to score on 9 occasions during this sequence and have failed to score in three of their last four on their travels. This season they find themselves on the back foot straight away as they lost 0-2 at home to Villarreal which was quickly followed by a 0-3 defeat away at Ahletic Bilbao, a side that Malaga disposed of, albeit at home, 2-0.
To sum up, I believe home advantage is a key factor between these two sides and I’ll back Malaga to take the points and cover the -1 handicap considering Levante’s goalscoring struggles at the moment. Malaga to win perhaps 2-0.
Pick: Malaga AH-1 @ 2.10 Pinnacle
