Saturday’s soccer match at Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero pits Elche and Barcelona, the two teams who sit in the opposite halves of the La Liga table. You can live-bet on the Spanish top-flight league action by using our sportsbook.
Elche: Bottom of the Table
The 2022-23 La Liga season is in its final stages as only 12 matches remain for all 20 teams in the Spanish top flight. While the battle for the European places has caught the most attention, the relegation fight promises to be just as intriguing and dramatic as anything happening above it in the table.
Elche is a whopping 14 points away from safety and has been at the very bottom of La Liga for quite some time. They are one of the least effective teams in all of Europe’s top five leagues, having won just two matches with a goal differential of minus-32.
They have the talent they can keep for a return to La Liga or sell to re-invest in the club for a stronger stay in the top flight at a future date. They just need those folks to finish the season strong. They will find it hard to secure La Liga survival and they will find it even harder to pull off the upset on Saturday against Barcelona.
Since both Pape Diop Cheikh and Lucas Boye are banned for this match, we are not tempted to put our money on the rock-bottom side and we won’t include them in our La liga picks and parlays.
Barcelona: Internal Issues
Barcelona moved one step closer to clinching the domestic title thanks to the El Clasico win against Real Madrid. Xavi Hernandez’s troops are eyeing their fourth consecutive league win and this is the perfect opportunity for them to return from the international break with a win, so if you’re betting online you should continue backing them.
Despite having had to deal with financial issues all season, Barcelona is intending to make additions to Hernandez’s first-team squad for the next campaign. Athletic Club defender Inigo Martinez is edging ever closer to being the Blaugrana’s first summer signing while a deal for Vitor Roque is always being lined up.
Midfielder Raphinha is banned for the match while all Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen, Pedri and Ousmane Dembele remain on the sidelines with injuries. Lionel Messi is reportedly edging closer to rejoining Barcelona because of an internal problem at Paris Saint-Germain. The Argentine is out of contract in the summer and could move on a free transfer. Joan Laporta has confirmed that they are looking to reduce their wage bill by another $80m in the summer.
Barcelona has been charged with corruption after allegedly paying over $8m between 2001 and 2018 to firms owned by Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, an ex-vice-president of Spain’s referees’ committee. The club denied wrongdoing in a statement last month, saying they had simply paid an external consultant that supplied them with technical reports related to professional refereeing.
Elche vs Barcelona Head-to-Head
Barcelona has won 11 road games this season, scoring 22 goals in 13 away games and allowing just seven. On the other side, Elche is sitting bottom of the table with just 13 points to their name and 51 goals allowed in 26 games. Barcelona has won each of the last five head-to-heads against Elche, including a 3-0 win in the reverse fixture.
Elche vs Barcelona Match Information
- Match: Elche (2-7-17) vs Barcelona (22-2-2)
- Location: Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero, Elche
- Day/Time: Saturday, April 1st, 3:00 p.m. ET
- Elche vs Barcelona Live Stream: fubo.tv
Elche vs Barcelona Betting Lines
Elche vs Barcelona Picks and Prediction
The Catalan giants enter this clash as heavy favorites being priced at -280 on the three-way moneyline according to the latest La Liga odds while the goal line is set at three.
Barcelona went 12 points clear at the top of La Liga after beating Real Madrid and we expect them to add three more points to their season tally. There’s a huge difference in quality between the two sides with Elche having the worst attack and defense in La Liga and Barcelona losing just two games all season. The visitors scored at least twice in each of the last five wins against Elche and they should have enough to cover the spread on Saturday.
Elche is listed at +750 in our Vegas La Ligalines. This means that if you wager $100 on Elche, you can win $750. Barcelona is -280, offering a chance to win $36 on a $100 wager.
The implied probability attached to the betting lines gives Elche an 11.76% chance to win, with Barcelona at 73.68%.
Elche vs Barcelona Match Detail
