Eibar vs Real Madrid Betting Tips

Real Madrid are on an absolute hiding to nothing here and it’s a really awkward fixture for under pressure Rafa Benitez. Comparisons will inevitably be drawn between the riches of Los Blancos and tiny Eibar, population 27,000. You could fit everyone from Eibar inside the Bernabeu and it would still be two thirds empty and to some extent, defeat in this fixture is unthinkable for Real and it would be every bit as humiliating as their 4-0 defeat at home to Barcelona last weekend.

That is certainly how the media would report a Real Madrid defeat or even draw here but more should be made of the fact that Eibar seem to have developed into a pretty good side. Aside from the vast differences between the clubs, put plainly this is a match between the teams in 6th and 3rd place in La Liga and with the 6th place side at home, an away win should by no means be regarded as an absolute certainty.

Eibar have only been beaten twice so far this season and they’ve taken 7 points from their last 3 matches so they are in good form. They looked to be on course for an excellent win at Villarreal last weekend but were reduced to 10 men in the closing minutes and conceded an equaliser soon afterwards.

Confidence will still be really high in their camp but still clearly it’s going to be a big ask for them to match the mega stars of Real Madrid. During their 16 months as a top flight club, there have been many highs but they’ve got a very poor record against the top sides and their two defeats this term have come against Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

They have lost all 10 matches they have played in La Liga against sides who finished in the top four last season. Eibar’s approach seems to generally be a ‘damage limitation’ mission in such games and they’ve managed to avoid morale-denting thrashings.

The Basque club have now played 50 top flight matches and somewhat surprisingly have only once conceded more than 3 goals in a game. That came in this exact fixture last year when Real Madrid won 4-0 last November. Real were in much better shape then though and it marked a 14th consecutive victory for Los Blancos.

Eibar are also a much improved outfit now but will still approach this with a cautious mentality especially having seen Real Madrid go 4-0 up at Shakhtar in the Champions League in midweek. This will be a much less open affair given the side from Ukraine, really had no choice but to attack given their position in the group and almost inevitably Bale, Ronaldo and co made them pay on the break.

Los Blancos still obviously are the superior side and should be able to avoid an embarrassing result but a big win is unlikely given Eibar’s cautious approach to these kind of games, not to mention how well they have been playing. Therefore consider backing Real Madrid to win but there to be under 3.5 goals in the game at really tempting odds of 6/4.

Rafa Benitez will have certainly worked on a few defensive things given his side have conceded 10 times in their last 3 matches. Prior to that though they had only let in 4 goals all season and the weaker sides haven’t really troubled them in the final third.

Eibar are unlikely to spend enough time near the opposition goal to get many chances here so backing a solid 2-0 away win might be the way to go at odds of 15/2.