On Friday, the 9th of February in the 24th round of the Spanish Primera, Cadiz will host Betis at their home ground. The home field owners are lingering at 18th place in the standings, trailing three points from the safe zone, while the "cucumbers" exists at 8th position and are two points behind the strongest six.
Cadiz: Ledesma; Carcelen, Fali, Chust, Pires; Alejo, Escalante, Alcaraz, Navarro; Sobrino, Ramos.
Betis: Silva; Bellerin, Pezzella, Papastathopoulos, Miranda; Cardoso, Altimira; Rodri, Isco, Fornals; Fekir.
The conflict will unfold in Cadiz, at the Nuevo Mirandilla Stadium.
Cadiz's position in the Primera standings is more than critical as the hosts currently sit 18th - in the relegation zone - and are trailing three points behind Mallorca. Moreover, the yellow-blues haven't tasted victory since the 4th of September (which was only the 4th tour of the championship). This is quite a daunting statistic, considering that since then, 19 matches have passed, or half of the season... If the "pirates" don't escape the crisis soon, relegation to Segunda will become a reality.
Last weekend, the Andalusians drew with Villarreal (0:0), just a few days after another draw against Athletic Bilbao (0:0). The two points earned in the last two rounds are largely thanks to Mauricio Pellegrino, who was appointed as the head coach at the end of last month. Scoring has been a major problem for the "yellow submarine" this season: the team has only managed to net 15 goals, which is unsurprisingly the worst record in La Liga.
It's been a struggle for Betis this season to pursue the European quarter, and the "cucumbers" have been fighting to get into the strongest six for several weeks now (current 8th position at the beginning of the tour). Furthermore, the "verdiblancos" suffered another blow, losing their playmaker Isco to injury. Last weekend, Manuel Pellegrini's charges failed to overpower Getafe (1:1), which remains a concern following their grueling victory over Mallorca (0:1).
Mason Greenwood struck at the eight-minute mark, and Isco levelled the score with a penalty towards the end of the first half. In fact, alongside the islanders and Cadiz, the green-whites have shared points in 11 instances, only managing to secure victory eight times in La Liga. In the 1/16 finals of the Europa League, Betis will face Dinamo Zagreb (the first match is scheduled for the 15th of February).
Betis has failed to defeat Cadiz in the last three matches they've played against each other. In the first round of this campaign, the teams settled for a 1:1 tie.
Cadiz has not won since September 2023, a total of 19 matches, and a defeat by Betis on Friday evening wouldn't be much of a shock. Despite all the staff losses, the "cucumbers" can still count on a quality squad thanks to the winter acquisitions. The guests can't afford to trip up, or else they risk falling even further behind the Eurocup six - my bet goes to their victory with a 0 handicap.
In three previous encounters, these teams haven't scored more than 2 goals between them. Neither has been particularly high-scoring in recent weeks, so I'm betting on an overall total of under 2.5 goals.
Betis outclasses the opposition and will aim to take control of the ball from the opening minutes. The visitors have a fair chance of taking at least 5 corners.
Cadiz accumulates more than 3 yellow cards per game on average and will resort to a lot of fouling against Betis' technical attack. I anticipate a victory in warnings for the "pirates".
I will go with an exact score of 0:1 in favour of Betis.
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