Malaga vs Espanyol Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Malaga come into this match in really poor form and with Espanyol looking a much improved outfit this term, the visitors may have what it takes to spring a minor surprise and come away with the points.

The hosts have really been rocked by the surprise resignation of Juande Ramos at the end of 2016. His replacement Marcelo Romero has endured a miserable time of it so far with just 1 point from his 4 league games and that came against struggling Osasuna. They are without a win in 9 games now in all competitions which points towards things starting to go wrong even before Ramos left.

Injuries have hampered them to some extent but the main problem has been their inability to defend. They added Martín Demichelis on a free from Espanyol and Luis Hernández from Leicester in January to help try and sort their central defensive problems out but it’s questionable how successful that will be. They’ve let in 1.7 goals per game in La Liga this season, managing to keep a clean sheet in only 11% of their home games and just 10% of their matches overall.

Espanyol by contrast, have been much more solid at the back. They have an excellent clean sheet ratio of 44% on their travels so will come here with a real sense of belief. They’ve also managed to score 3 goals and win matches on each of the last two weekends in La Liga so they do boast a threat at the other end and the Barcelona club have even been touted as dark-horses for a European place in some quarters this week.

One man who has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence with them is José Antonio Reyes. He has netted inside the opening 15 minutes of their last two games and given he is on penalty duty as well, there looks to be great value in backing Reyes to score anytime at 6/1 here.

On current form the visitors should certainly get a result and backing Double Chance – Espanyol or Draw at 3/4 looks like a smart bet.