Leganes vs Espanyol
Spanish La Liga
Date: Sunday, 16th April 2017
Kick off at 11:00 UK/ 12:00 CET
Venue: Estadio Municipal de Butarque.
The bookies make Leganes very clear favourites at 21/20 here but that’s surprising for a number of reasons and there does look to be real value in backing the visitors to get a result.
Firstly Leganes haven’t been great in their recent games and are without a win in 5 coming into this. They were beaten by rock bottom Osasuna last time out, becoming the first team to lose in Pamplona this season and that result would have been a real blow to morale coming into this. They’ve drawn enough games this season to keep their heads above water but they still have plenty of work to do to secure promotion, given they are just one place above the bottom three.
It’s just 2 wins in 21 matches in all competitions for Leganes. Their home record is also poor, with just a 20% home win ratio and only 0.93 points per game taken from their home games this season in La Liga. Only Osasuna have a worse home record than them and Leganes still have the worst goal-scoring record in La Liga with just 0.84 scored per game this term.
All those things make it hard to understand why they are such clear favourites here, especially when you consider Espanyol are enjoying a strong campaign. The Barcelona club are only 4 points off 7th place, which should be good enough for European football so they still have plenty to play for and they are well capable of getting a result. Quique Sánchez Flores’ side have lost only 2 of their last 8 games so their form isn’t bad and they certainly have more quality in the final third than their opponents.
With 11 goals for the season including 3 in his last 7, backing Gerard Moreno to score anytime at 13/5 looks to offer value here and he is certainly more appealing than several Leganes players that appear at shorter odds in that market, despite having scored nowhere near that number of goals.
Overall the visitors should get at least a draw from this game and backing Double Chance – Draw or Espanyol at 4/5 looks to offer value.
Leganes
Garitano’s side has had huge troubles at the back lately which is the main reason for the fact they are winless in last five games.
The team allowed as many as six goals in back-to-back losses to Real Madrid and Osasuna.
The good news for the hosts is their decent form at Butarque in the recent period because they took two wins and played one draw before the mentioned defeat to Real Madrid.
Espanyol
Espanyol climbed up to the bottom half of the standings thanks to an impressive home shape.
The Catalans took four straight victories at their RCDE Stadium, including the one over Deportivo Alaves last weekend.
However, it is a completely different story when Quique Sanchez Flores’ men ply on the road where they are win-less in last five encounters.
Leganes vs Espanyol: Head to head
The two sides have met only once during the history since Leganes earned the promotion to the elite for the first time ever last year.
Espanyol were more than convincing in the first match beating Leganes 3-0 on the home court.
Gerard Moreno broke the deadlock right at the start of the second half, while Pablo Piatti added a brace to set the final score.
Leganes vs Espanyol: Prediction
Interestingly, the bookmakers see Leganes as slight favorites to pick up the victory.
We obviously don’t see the value in backing the hosts to claim the win at 11/10 odds which is why we’ll take the in-form Espanyol side to avoid a defeat at the odds of 3/4.
