Two teams tumbling down the La Liga table, Real Betis and Valencia, will do battle on match day 22 to try and end respective losing streaks at the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
Form
Betis have not won a league match in quite some time, dropping points in each of their last nine league matches, drawing four and losing the other five coming up against some tough opposition to boot. Surprisingly, their draws have come against the likes of Celta de Vigo, Sevilla, Villarreal, and Real Madrid. However, the losses have come up against sides that they should have at least gotten a point off of: Las Plamas, Eibar, Getafe, and Real Sociedad; Barcelona the lone exception to the rule.
The biggest two problems for Real Betis this campaign has been their inability to find the back of the net and their leaky defense. As far as goals for goes, Betis sit last in that department only scoring 15 times which is five less than the next club up. Betis’ defense is not too bad, but it’s not great and it definitely needs to be more compact and the less amount of goals they give up, then the easier it will be for them to stay above that relegation zone.
Hiring Gary Neville was supposed to turn Valencia’s side around and get them back up into a fight for a Europa League spot, or even a Champions League spot. Yet, their form has dipped even more so and are currently sitting below the bottom half of the league, winless in their last six eleven league matches and have just come off of a 7-0 demolishing by Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey semifinals and will hope their form can be found again before the Europa League knockout rounds begin otherwise they’ll be out of that competition too.
In the last match against Sporting Gijon, Valencia were the better side, dominating position and having the better of the go in the final third of the pitch, getting 15 shots away; only three of them finding the target. Unfortunately, a penalty was given five minutes into the second half and Antonio Sanabria, the man on loan from Roma, scored from twelve yards away netting his tenth goal of the season.
Key Playes
Sofaine Feghouli is fully fit again and that is very good news for Los Che. He is a very experienced winger, playing for his nation multiple times on the biggest stage, and provides with to his side. His biggest trait is his ability to cross the ball into the box to find the big target men whether it be Alvaro Negredo or Paco Alcacer waiting to get on the end of the delivery.
For a side that does not score many goals, it’s 34-year-old Ruben Castro who has the majority of them with nine. He’s seen his fair share of relegation and promotion, even with this Betis side, being promoted twice and relegated once at the end of 2013/14 season. If they are going to snatch three points away from the visitors, Betis will need this man to find the back of the net.
Prediction
With these two sides being so similar in form, there will not be much separation between them and this match will most likely end in a draw.