Spanish La Liga Predictions This Weekend: Primera Best Bets for Gameweek 12

This matchup has rarely gone Sevilla’s way, being winless versus Osasuna in eight meetings (0-4-4). Last year, they split the points in a 1-1 draw and then Osasuna won 1-0. The year prior, they drew twice, 0-0 and 1-1.

This season, neither is off to a great start. Sevilla is 4-1-6 and have lost three straight by scores of 3-1, 2-1, and 3-0.

Osasuna is also winless in three, with a 3-2-5 record, good for only 15th. None of those three wins have come on the road, where they’re 0-1-5 and have been outscored 7-1.

Conversely, Sevilla is actually better on the road, where three of their four wins have come. At home, Los Rojiblancos are just 1-1-3 and have been outscored 10-9.

Sevilla are capable of big home performances as evidenced by an impressive 4-1 rout of Barcelona just a few weeks ago. However, they’ve not been able to follow that up with much success since.

Osasuna have also been dealt a big blow, as top scorer Ante Budimir has sustained a left leg injury and will miss out. Budimir leads Los Rojillos with four goals, while no one else has more than one.

The Sevilla medical room also has some injured offensive players. Both Isaac Romero and Alexis Sanchez are injured, representing two of Sevilla’s four top scorers.

With both teams lacking much creative flair, ranking 17th (Sevilla) and 16th (Osasuna) in shots on target, with the addition of missing offensive stars and a history of low-scoring games, this should be a tight matchup with limited chances.

From two struggling sides, to two that are thriving in the early stages of the La Liga season, as 6th-placed Espanyol host 3rd-placed Villarreal.

Espanyol have only lost once at home this season and have never failed to get on the scoresheet; something they’ve only failed to do twice in all matches this season.

Villarreal was in action on Wednesday in the Champions League. Favored on the road in Cyprus, the Yellow Submarine were upset 1-0 by Pafos FC, giving the Cypriots their first-ever Champions League victory.

That snapped a run of wins that had seen them win 4-0, 6-0, and 2-0. It’s also just the fourth time all season they’ve not scored. Each of the previous three times came against strong opponents like Man City, Tottenham, and Atletico Madrid.

Villarreal may be coming in off of a shorter week, but they’ll take confidence in knowing they’ve been strong versus this opponent after winning five straight in the matchup. Those games have featured plenty of goals too, with 17 combined between the teams.

Despite the midweek defeat, Villarreal are still in good form, though they came up against a team with a strong home form themselves. Therefore, I’ll back goals coming from both for this weekend’s La Liga predictions.

After a mediocre start that saw them go 2-1-2, Valencia hasn’t collected all three points in a La Liga match since way back on September 20.

Their only win since then was over lower-tier side UD Maracena in Copa Del Rey. Last week, they were put to the sword against Real Madrid in a 4-0 defeat—their third-straight La Liga match where they’ve been shut out. It was also the fifth time in six league games they’ve conceded multiple goals.

Real Betis has a short turnaround after playing on Thursday in the Europa League. Hosting French side Lyon, they prevailed 2-0. Antony was on the scoresheet again, after scoring twice versus Mallorca last week.

Los Verdiblancos have been a solid outfit this season, sitting 5th in La Liga and only suffering one defeat across their last 12 overall matches.

Valencia won on their home pitch in this fixture last season, 4-2, while they drew 1-1 away in Seville. Going further back, Betis owns a 2-2-1 record in the last five and given their stellar current form, I’ll back Betis to continue that trend with a win here.

Only one of these teams is in the title race with Barcelona chasing Real Madrid in the table, while Celta Vigo are 12th. However, Celta’s form has been improving in recent weeks and they should be full of confidence on Sunday.

Celta were in Croatia on Thursday in the Europa League and cruised to a 3-0 win versus Dinamo Zagreb, which saw Pablo Duran score a first-half brace. They’ve hit their best run of results of the season. Celta are undefeated in eight games across all competitions and winners of five straight, while scoring multiple goals in all five.

Barcelona travelled to Belgium to meet Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday and had a wild back-and-forth six-goal thriller that ended 3-3. The game followed a common trend in Barcelona matches where they’re always a good bet to score a couple of goals, but rarely do they keep clean sheets.

Barca have scored multiple goals in 11 of their past 12, but have conceded in nine straight matches, therefore, making bets on both teams scoring and over 2.5 a perfect 9-0 in recent weeks.

In past seasons, this fixture has been a goal-fest. Last year they drew 2-2 in Vigo, while Barcelona prevailed 4-3 in Catalunya. If we look further back, the high-scoring trend continues to be prevalent with bets on both teams scoring and over 2.5 goals having cashed in eight of nine and 10/12 recent meetings.