Lewis Blackhorme
Dailysports's expert
Real Betis
Barcelona
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On February 1, Benito Villamarín Stadium (Sevilla) will host the match of the 17th round of the La Liga, in which Betis will compete with Barcelona. The battle will start at 21:00 CET.
Betis
The club has always got a fairly high level of ambitions, and even found the opportunity to sign up the contracts with the well-skilled players. The more offensive it was to be in the thick shadow of a neighbouring rival – Sevilla. Only nowadays, being under the rule of Pellegrini, the team started to obtain good results: it qualified for the European competitions twice in a row and, that is even more important, won the Copa del Rey in 2022. There were hopes that it would be possible to play in the Champions League according to the results of the new temporada. Nevertheless, the extremely promising beginning was noticeably tainted step by step. Ironically, the Super Cup and the Copa del Rey were lost in the way the team had won the trophy in a struggle with Valencia in the spring – on penalties. And then there happened one more defeat in the Primera – an away 1-0 misfire in the match with Espanyol. And only the “problem” named Getafe, thanks to a late goal made on penalty, was coped with.
Barcelona
The team seems to have found the answer to the main question: how to play successfully without Messi? The previous temporada was terrible, almost a failure – then, there were enough misfires in the autumn. The 3rd place in the Champions League group and, therefore, a failure in the battle for the play-offs of the tournament, is a great proof of the higher mentioned fact. Nowadays, the mood of the club and its fans should definitely be better. There has appeared a long-awaited event – Xavi has finally won the title – a decisive 3-1 victory in the struggle against Real Madrid in the Super Cup in January. After that, the team overcame a pretty difficult opponent, Real Sociedad, in the Copa del Rey. At the same time, the run for the Primera trophy seems to come down to a face-to-face confrontation with Madrid. The wrong steps are not so numerous nowadays; however, one of them was in the winter – in a derby with Espanyol. Still, after a 1-0 victory in the match with Girona and a misfire of the higher mentioned rival with Sociedad, the gap between two leaders became a 5-point one.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
The teams exchanged away wins in the previous season. Recently, there was a draw within the framework of the Super Cup, but “the Blaugrana” won in the penalty shoot-out.
Predictions
Bookmakers are waiting for the victory of Barcelona. Nevertheless, taking into account the statistics of recent matches, it is reasonable to bet on “total: under 2.5” (odd: 2.09).
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