Deportivo Alaves vs Eibar
Primera Division
Date: 25th November 2017
Kick off at 12:00 UK / 13:00 CET
Venue: Estadio do Mendizorozza (Vitoria-Gazteiz).
This is a local derby and although there’s not a great deal of hatred between Eibar and Alaves, we can still expect a fierce contest given the league situation. Both sides are currently in the bottom four and in genuine relegation danger it would seem. Neither have been convincing in front of goal this term and it’s hard to see many goals in this game.
That is despite Eibar hitting five on Monday in a shock win over Real Betis. It’s hard to really know what to read into that but it may prove to be little more than a freak result, as the Basque minnows had been pretty poor in the final third in almost all of their matches prior to that.
Even with that win, they’ve still failed to score in 50% of their matches this term in La Liga. They had the worst goal-scoring record in the division along with Alaves prior to that game and on the road, they’ve barely carried any threat. Eibar have scored just 0.5 goals per game away and have failed to score in 6 of their last 10 away matches in La Liga overall.
The stats don’t make any better reading for Alaves. They now stand alone with the worst goal-scoring record in La Liga, with just 0.5 goals per game. They have failed to score in an alarming 58% of their league games this term and have offered very little creative threat in truth, often reliant on a defensive error or moment of brilliance to score goals.
The latter was the case in their most recent home game, as Christian Santos hit a stunning volley to give them an early lead. Defensively they did pretty well and hung on for a 1-0 win but they found it tough to break down an Espanyol side that were reduced to 10 men in the 1st Half.
There stands a very good chance at least that one of these sides will fail to net in this one. Both teams have scored in just 25% of Alaves games and only 25% of Eibar games this term in La Liga and backing Both Teams to Score – NO is the standout bet here.
Perhaps there is slightly more value in backing the visitors to get the win, given the confidence they will take from their Monday night display but there’s more sense in backing at least one of these teams to fail to find the net as neither have been at all convincing this term. Last season’s results also strongly back that up.
Deportivo Alaves vs Eibar: Head to head
Both of the last term’s H2H ties between the two likes offered no goals which is clearly the scenario we are not expecting to witness in the opening fixture of the day on Saturday.
Eibar have generally been the more successful outfit over the history, but most of their previous clashes with Alaves took place in lower divisions.
Deportivo Alaves vs Eibar: Prediction
The visitors will enter the game in much higher spirits and they are more than capable of taking advantage of Babazorros’ horrendous momentum at this stage.
Jose Mndillibar has a deadly attacking duo in the likes of Charles and Sergi Enrich who seem to have both found the right shape and backing Eibar to come on top at the end is just the smartest of the betting options here.
