La Liga’s second-placed team, Real Madrid, will host relegation-threatened side Eibar at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid this weekend.
The capital club who are currently carrying out remodeling of their home stadium will be looking at taking all three points from this tie as the fight for the La Liga crown hit the home run. The hosts head into the tie with one win from their last five games in all competitions.
Eibar meanwhile head into the tie with one win from five games in the league. They sit in 16th place with 27 points from 27 games and one point above Celta Vigo, who can go above them with if they can pick up a positive result against Villarreal.
Team News
Zinedine Zidane has almost a full squad to pick from, with only summer signing Luca Jovic and Nacho Fernandez missing through injuries. Both players are expected to return top training in the coming weeks.
Ivan Ramis (knee) and Gonzalo Escalante (suspension) are the only absentees for Jose Mendilibar.
Head to head
Real Madrid have emerged winners in five of the last five meetings between both sides, scoring 14 times and keeping three clean sheets in that period.
Team Form
Eibar last five games in all competitions: LLWLL
Real Madrid last five games in all competitions: LWLLD
Betting Preview
Real Madrid head into this tie as betting favorites, having not lost at home in the league this season. At home this season, Los Blancos have taken 31 points in 13 games, winning nine times with four ending in draws. They have scored 27 times in that period, conceding just nine times.
Their home win ratio for this season stands at 69% as they have also kept seven clean sheets in the league this season.
Real Madrid are specialists of the second half with 54 points garnered in the second half of matches. They also have scored 29 times in the second half against the 20 they scored in the first half.
However, they tend to concede more in the second half of matches, with 13 conceded in the second half against six in the first half.
Eibar will be hoping to keep the hosts at bay. However, their 41 goals conceded in the league is one of the highest in the league.
They have conceded 21 times away from home, with clean sheets shared between home and away games (four apiece).
In the second half, they tend to concede more with an away goal difference of -8 after half time one of the poorest in La Liga this season. Judging by Madrid’s resilience at the back, and their poor record of 27 goals—eight away from home—Eibar, have an uphill battle at their hands this weekend.
In their last six away games, Eibar have successfully to restrict their hosts to half-time draws on four occasions so that we can expect a first-half draw in this tie.
Suggested bets
First half draw/second half Madrid win @ 10/3
Madrid to win @ 1/4
Over 2.5 Goals @ 8/15
