MARK O’Haire (@MarkOHaire) looks at Monday’s La Liga match-up between two struggling sides.
Granada v Almeria | Monday 19.45 | Sky Sports 5
It’s now just two points from 21 for Granada including three successive home defeats. They’ve never lost four consecutive home top-flight fixtures but with only two goals to their name in those seven winless outings, it’s hard to find any faith in taking the 11/10 from William Hill.
Joaquín Caparrós’ side have only netted six in their La Liga fixtures this campaign and two of those came from long-range strikes. However, Almeria (29/10 BetVictor) arrive on the back of four defeats on the trot, leaking twice in three of those losses. Hope?
Perhaps. But the visitors have already recorded two away wins at fellow strugglers Sociedad and Deportivo in September and can at least lay claim to scoring in seven of their 11 league matches in 2014/15.
Caution is the name of the game when sizing up this clash. Between the two sides, since the start of the season, they’ve seen just 3/48 draws in their respective home/away games and so that negates a punt on the 12/5 draw (Coral).
Instead, I’m going to have a small bet on the 0-0 half-time score with William Hill. Granada have seen 13/24 (54%) half-time draws at home since the start of the 2013/14 campaign and 12 (50%) of those games went into the interval goalless.
Almeria’s draw-rate on the road isn’t anywhere near as high but it’s worth noting they’ve netted just once in the first 45 minutes this season when playing away.
Best Bets
Granada v Almeria – 0-0 half-time correct score (13/8 William Hill)
