Malaga v Barcelona
15:00
Malaga picked up their first win in seven as they beat fellow strugglers Gijon 1-0 away to move eight points from the relegation zone. Barca eased past Sevilla 3-0 at the Nou Camp to remain within two points of Real, though Los Blancos still have that crucial game in hand.
Malaga are struggling for goals at the moment as they’ve managed just three in their last seven whilst they’ve also lost five of their last six at home, failing to score in half of these. They’ve hosted only two of the top-five to date, losing 2-0 against both Atletico and Villarreal. They generally keep things pretty tight against the top teams as they were only beaten 2-1 by Barca in this fixture last term, whilst they managed a 1-1 draw with Real, though they were admittedly having a better season than they are this time around.
The same can also be said of Barca, who have won just five of their last nine on the road during which time they’ve kept only three clean sheets. They’re W6-D1-L1 when travelling to bottom-half teams this term and so they’ll probably get the job done but since they’ve won just four of their last 12 on the road by more than two, it’s unlikely to be a resounding victory. With a trip to Juve to come on Tuesday night they could ease up should they take an early lead. We’re going to take a chance on Barca’s margin of victory being just two goals.
Barcelona to Win by a Two Goal Margin at 3.75
Betting intelligence provided by Football Form Labs
