La Liga 2021/22 Matchweek 13 preview & top betting picks

Real Madrid is at home against Rayo Vallecano this weekend while the other two teams in the top three on La Liga table are on the road as Real Sociedad visits Osasuna and Sevilla heads to Real Betis. We’ve got breakdowns and betting plays on all three of these key matchups in our La Liga Matchweek 13 soccer picks.

Real Madrid vs Rayo Vallecano

Real Madrid (7-3-1) improved to 2-1-0 over its last three league games with a 2-1 road win over Elche last Saturday. Real had a surprising mini-slump with a 2-1 loss to Sheriff in UEFA Champions League play on September 28 and a 2-1 loss to Espanyol on October 3. But the club is 4-1-0 in competitive play since then, including a 5-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk and a 2-1 road win over Barcelona.

Rayo Vallecano (6-2-4) is having unprecedented success for a club that finished sixth in the Segunda Division last year before earning promotion. Rayo has won six of its first 12 matches including a 1-0 upset over Barcelona and enters Matchweek 13 with a +6 goal differential (18 goals for, 12 goals against) that ranks fifth best in La Liga. While we aren’t quite ready to pick Rayo Vallecano to win, we do think that the club’s solid defense will keep this game close and send it UNDER the posted total of three goals.

Osasuna vs Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad (7-4-1) played to a draw against Athletic Bilbao last Sunday, extending its unbeaten streak to 11 straight games since losing its season opener to Barcelona back in August. Sociedad has the third best scoring defense in La Liga this season having conceded only 10 goals through the club’s first 12 games.

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Osasuna (5-4-3) will be looking to bounce back from a 2-0 loss on the road to Sevilla last weekend. The home club in this match has been held without a goal in each of its last two league games and has scored only 14 times through its first 12 matches in 2021-22. The UNDER is clearly worth strong consideration here in what will likely be a low-scoring game, but we’ll trust Real Sociedad’s offense to scratch out a deciding goal to cash in as a road winner on Sunday.

Real Betis vs Sevilla

The betting market has this game pegged as virtual coin-flip, as Sevilla (7-3-1) is going off at -117 on the pick’em line and Betis (6-3-3) is going off at -103. On the three-way line, Sevilla is a slight favorite at +160 with Betis paying +185 and the draw going off at +235.

Sevilla has been far worse on the road this season with a 2-3-1 record and a +1 goal differential than it has at home with a 5-0-0 record and a +11 goal differential. But one thing Sevilla has been consistent in both home and away is producing low-scoring games. Five of Sevilla’s last six games have produced two total goals or less, and each of the last three games between these two clubs have had two goals or less scored in them as well. We’ll stay away from trying to pick a winner here and just roll with the UNDER.