La Liga 2021/22 Matchweek 24 betting picks & top odds

Sevilla will try to snap a stretch of three straight draws this Friday at home against Elche. That matchup is featured in our La Liga Matchweek 24 best bets this week along with Saturday’s Villarreal vs Real Madrid clash and Sunday’s Espanyol vs Barcelona matchup.

Sevilla vs Elche

Sevilla (13-8-2) is unbeaten over its last nine matches but has still been losing ground on Real Madrid in La Liga standings due to an 0-3-0 run over its last three matches. Prior to these three draws, Sevilla was 5-1-0 over its previous six matches. And the worst part about this run has been the quality of opponent as all three of these draws have come against teams in 10th place or worse on the table in Valencia, Celta Vigo and Osasuna.

Elche (6-8-9) is another club on the bottom half of the standings, though they’ve been playing much better than their overall record of late with a 3-2-0 record over their last five games that includes an impressive 2-2 draw on the road against Real Madrid. There is a lot of value on Elche as a 1.25-goal underdog in this spot; a draw is a very realistic outcome, and even if Sevilla wins, their last five wins have all been by only one goal. These two teams played to a 1-1 draw earlier this season, too. All signs point to a close game.

Villarreal vs Real Madrid

Real Madrid (16-5-2) has not been in particularly dominant form in recent weeks with a 2-1-1 run over its last four matches that includes a 1-0 loss to Getafe, a 2-2 draw against Elche and an underwhelming 1-0 win over Grenada last Sunday. Villarreal (9-8-6) meanwhile has climbed up to sixth place on La Liga table with a 6-1-1 record over its last eight games after opening the season with a 3-7-5 record.

The betting line on this one makes it tough to pick a winner with both Real Madrid and Villarreal going off at +165 on the three-way line and the draw paying +255. Villarreal would be a clear play getting underdog odds, but at these odds it’s actually tough to pass on a club as strong as Real Madrid getting +165. We’ll take Real on the two-way line as a pick’em; the club doesn’t lose outright very often, and we’ll take the push on move on with a draw.

Espanyol vs Barcelona

Barcelona (10-8-4) continued its strong recent play with a 4-2 win at home over Atletico Madrid on Sunday, improving to 4-2-0 over its last six matches and jumping up to fourth place in the league standings in the process. Espanyol (7-6-10) meanwhile is winless in its last four matches with an 0-1-3 record over that stretch, most recently losing to Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on the road on Monday.

Bettors should be thrilled to have the chance to jump on Barcelona here as only a -130 favorite on the road. Barcelona snapped a four-game winless streak with a 1-0 win over Espanyol the last time these two clubs met, and this time around Barcelona is in better form and Espanyol is in worse form than they were in that November meeting. This is a match that Barcelona shouldn’t have too much trouble with.