Alaves vs Cadiz CF prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2024-01-18 20:00.
It’s been a positive start to 2024 for Alavés, who emerged unbeaten from a pair of tricky away trips to Real Sociedad and Sevilla in La Liga (W1, D1). El Glorioso squandered a two-goal lead against Sevilla in their last outing, before eventually scoring in the 90th minute to secure victory and move themselves five points clear of the drop zone, and upcoming opponents Cádiz, as a result.
Luis GarcĂa Plaza’s men will be desperate to extend that gap as they look to avoid an immediate return to the second-tier. Achieving that could depend on AlavĂ©s improving upon their home form as they’ve lost back-to-back La Liga matches on their own turf by a 1-0 scoreline, but as they’ve failed to win three previous top-flight H2H home meetings (D2, L1), the omens aren’t good from a historical perspective.
Despite that, Cádiz come into this clash as underdogs and little wonder, as they’ve now failed to win any of their last 16 league matches (D8, L8). A pair of defeats by multiple-goal margins to kick off the new year has done little to inspire hope of a revival, but the Yellow Submarine remain just afloat and a point adrift of safety ahead of this Friday night clash, so all hope is not lost just yet.
A 15-match run without a league win on their travels needs to end if they’re to retain that hope for much longer (D6, L9), but perhaps they’ll be confident here after winning the reverse fixture 1-0 on the season’s opening weekend. Just as in that clash, goals may be in short supply here, as Cádiz have netted a league-low 15 times this season, while both of these sides have drawn a scoring blank in a joint-league high nine of their 20 league matches this term.
Players to watch: Both of Luis Rioja’s goals for Alavés this season have been match openers and he’s not been on the losing side when finding the net since a 5-1 drubbing against Barcelona back in February 2021. Cádiz’s top scorer Chris Ramos has seen four of his five strikes this season arrive before half-time, three of which came inside the opening 20 minutes.
Hot stat: Cádiz have scored just three of their 15 league goals this season in the second-half of matches, while they’ve also conceded two-thirds of their goals after half-time.