Barcelona travels to take on Real Valladolid after having managed to secure three points in their opener against Alaves. After a slow start to the game, Barça stepped up the pressure after the break to record a 3-0 win and get their title defence off on the right foot.
Last season saw the Catalan club saunter to the league title despite disappointment in European competition, and this time around they will be in the hunt for a La Liga and Champions League double.
- Barcelona has already won silverware this season – the Spanish Super Cup.
- Lionel Messi has hit the ground running after bagging a brace last week.
- Valladolid won the last league meeting between these two sides.
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Barça looks to build on solid start
A double from Lionel Messi as well as a goal from Philippe Coutinho gave Barcelona the perfect start to their new league campaign. Now, they can look to build foundations against a Valladolid side that has only just been promoted from the second tier.
It is therefore of little surprise that it is visitors Barça who come into the game as overwhelming favorites to pick up their second league win of the campaign. The Catalans are at just -600 to pick up the three points, with Valladolid out at +1200 to record a shock win.
In terms of technical quality, Valladolid cannot hope to match Barcelona and their best hope of salvaging anything from this clash may well be a point. A draw comes in at +650 but even that looks unlikely when Barcelona have invested over the summer in the likes of Arturo Vidal and Brazilian forward Malcom.
If you look at the odds for relegation, Valladolid are among the favorites for the job. Only Huesca (at -125) and Rayo Vallecano (at +110) are at shorter odds, with Valladolid coming in at +175 to suffer the ignominy of an immediate return to the second tier.
Even last season, Valladolid could only manage a fifth-place finish in the second division before negotiating their way past Sporting Gijon and Numancia in the playoffs. Their squad looks desperately thin on the ground and this should be a stroll in the park for Barcelona.
With odds so short on the outcome, your best hope of building profits will be going into specifics. And while it is never easy trying to predict exact scores, a 3-0 win for Barcelona – as they managed last week against Alaves – is priced competitively at +600.
Barça could inflict rout
Last week, Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde could afford to leave the likes of Vidal and Coutinho on the bench to begin with. And the coach may well decide to tinker with his squad again as he looks to leave his players fresh for an assault on the Champions League, whose group stages get underway next month.
Valladolid’s hopes are slim in the extreme and Barça should be on the hunt for goals from the off. You can back the Catalans to be ahead both at the interval and the full time whistle at a price of -175.
Meanwhile, with Barcelona looking to get on the front foot, we should see plenty of goalmouth action. There are likely to be OVER 2.5 goals in the game, an outcome you can back at -250, with UNDER 2.5 goals at the much higher odds of +187.
Meanwhile, if you are not comfortable predicting a scoreline, you can also go down the winning margin route. It is only really worth looking at Barça numbers, who are at +300 to win by two goals, +375 to win by three goals, and that price drops to +275 for them to win by four goals or more.
In addition, Barcelona are likely to come racing out of the tracks, and you can back them to be ahead within the first 10 minutes at +300. It is shaping up to be a long afternoon for Valladolid.
So, who is going to bag these goals? The usual suspects are Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, with the former at -250 to score at any time and +200 to get the first or last goal. Suarez is at -188 to net during the game, and you can back him at +260 to open the scoring.
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