Rayo Vallecano vs Atletico Madrid Betting Tips

These two sides are at opposite ends of the Primera Division and will both probably be more interested in their league games at the weekend than this match. Rayo are 19th but head to the only side below them for a crucial six-pointer against Levante on Saturday.

By contrast Atletico Madrid are top of the table but have a difficult game away from home against 5th placed Celta Vigo at the weekend so it’s highly likely both teams will make plenty of changes for this game.

Atleti are in fine form having won 11 of their last 12 matches and only suffered 1 defeat in 18 in all competitions. That is all without them playing scintillating football and they haven’t scored more than 2 goals in any of their last 15 matches but they keep grinding out low scoring victories.

Rayo Vallecano would take any sort of a win having gone 6 matches without one and they’d lost 5 games in a row prior to their 2-2 draw with Real Sociedad at the weekend.

These sides met in La Liga only last week and the game was goalless for 88 minutes until Angel Correa and Antoine Griezmann struck late on to give the visitors a 2-0 win. This isn’t likely to be particularly open either and since the end of October, games involving Atleti have averaged just 1.6 goals per game with only two matches featuring 3 or more goals so consider backing there to be under 2.5 goals here at 3/4.

There isn’t much to like about Rayo Vallecano at the moment and a weakend Rayo aren’t likely to be able to hold out for the entire game so consider backing the visitors to win 1-0 at 5/1 which is all they really need to do to take a firm grip on the tie going in to the 2nd leg at the Vicente Calderon, where they are incredibly strong.