La Liga: Barca Set to Extend Dominance over Alaves

Barcelona vs Alaves

Barcelona remain locked in a close battle with Real Madrid atop the La Liga standings. And the Catalans will have a great opportunity to pick up three more valuable points before the winter break as they host Deportivo Alaves in their last match of the year.

Alaves have been dealing with a bit of adversity of late, going three straight matches without victory. And the La Liga 2019 betting odds are most definitely against them as they take on a Barca side that’s notoriously tough to beat at the Camp Nou.

opacity 0

CLICK HERE
TO SEE UPDATED ODDS MORE

Premier League

Talking Points

Barca very hard to beat at home

Barcelona’s run of six straight victories (four in La Liga) came to an end with a 2-2 draw at Real Sociedad. The match ended with some VAR (or lack thereof) controversy, which prompted Barca to lodge a complaint to the federation.

El Clasico is yet to be played at the time of this preview’s writing, so it remains to be seen whether Barca’s five-game unbeaten run in the league will remain intact.

But if it does stay alive, it almost surely won’t end at home against Alaves. Barca have been imperious at home this season. They’ve won all seven matches to date while scoring 4-5 goals in six out of those seven games.

Lionel Messi has especially enjoyed performing in front of his home fans. The amazing Argentine has scored a hat-trick in back-to-back home matches and has netted nine goals in his last four home games overall.

However, the big question is whether Messi and other Barca stars will even feature against Alaves or whether manager Ernesto Valverde will opt to rest some of them following what is sure to be another physically and emotionally taxing El Clasico in midweek.

Needless to say, Valverde’s decision will have a huge bearing on the outcome of this match

Alaves’ atrocious away form

Alaves need a victory after going three matches without a win. They dropped back-to-back matches against Real Madrid and Granada before picking up a disappointing home draw against second-from-bottom Leganes.

After challenging for European places for most of last season, Alaves have been pretty underwhelming during this year’s campaign. They are currently in 14th place with 19 points. They’ve scored just 18 goals in their first 17 matches while conceding 24.

Alaves will look to upset match favourites Barcelona in their upcoming La Liga clash — Deportivo Alaves are struggling in La Liga winning only 2 in their last 5 La Liga matches

They’ve been getting a good number of goals from their former English Premier League strike partnership of Lucas Perez, formerly of Arsenal, and ex-Newcastle man Joselu, who have scored eight and seven goals, respectively.

But they just haven’t had enough attacking production beyond those two; the rest of the squad has scored just three goals between them.

Perhaps more crucially, though, Alaves have been simply unable to pick up points away from home. They remain winless in eight away matches with three draws and five defeats, the second-worst away record in the entire league.

Moreover, they’ve only scored four away goals, which is dead-last in the league. Picking up a goal at the Camp Nou will be a tough ask, and even then, they will have to keep Barca’s fantastic forwards at bay, which will be even more daunting.

History

Barcelona have dominated their historical head-to-heads with Alaves. The Catalans have won 17 of their 23 meetings since 1999, with Alaves winning four times and the two teams drawing twice.

Barca have won the last six meetings, five in the league and one in the Copa del Rey final back in 2017. Lionel Messi scored the opener in that final, as well as in Barca’s last two wins over Alaves at the Camp Nou.

Betting Tip

	Barcelona vs Deportivo Alaves	Under 3.50 @ 1.95
	December 21, 23:00 (GMT+8)

The SBOBET odds for this match are as one-sided as it gets. Barca are overwhelming 1.15 favourites to pick up another home win. Meanwhile, Alaves are an astronomical 14.50 to pull off the upset at the Camp No. A draw is priced at 7.80.

So it’s safe to say a Barca win is a foregone conclusion at this point. So let’s go to the over under market and take under 3.50 goals.

This pick may seem a bit daft considering Barca’s La Liga home games this season have averaged around 5.5 goals per contest. But with this match coming on the heels of El Clasico and the possibility of some squad rotation, I’m confident that while there are bound to be some La Liga 2019 highlights, there won’t be quite as many as in previous matches at the Camp Nou this season.