Betis vs Atl. Madrid prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2023-08-19 19:30.
For the third time in four seasons, Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis opened a new La Liga (LL) season with a victory, this time making a significant statement with just their second away win against Villarreal from a dozen visits (D3, L7). Ironically, they could do the same thing this weekend if they were to shock Atlético Madrid who they have bettered just once from their last 23 competitive H2Hs across all venues (D5, L17).
Pellegrini, who just last week expressed his concern about a lack of funds to replace departures such as JoaquĂn and Sergio Canales, likely won’t be getting ahead of himself after the result. In addition to a lack of recent points against their upcoming opponents, Betis could not win at home to any of the top-four clubs in the last LL campaign (D2, L2), whilst they collected just one win from ten home games (D3, L6) as pre-match outsiders across the two previous seasons
Further tilting things in the visitors’ favour is Diego Simeone’s undefeated personal record against his rival manager (W7, D3) and a renewed vigour from the long-time Atlético gaffer that spurred them on to open a new season with a victory for a fifth straight year. Perhaps most ominously, they were the only LL side of the first round with more than two goals to their name as they ended matchday one atop the table, although captain Koke leaving the field with injury after just several minutes will have slightly soured their success.
Betis were the highest-ranked side that Atlético defeated on the road last LL season, and whilst there were slip-ups along the way such as back-to-back away defeats at Cádiz and Mallorca before the World Cup, they recovered to post the league’s second-best away record (W10, D5, L4) courtesy of a league-best 14 opening goals (W10, D4).
Players to watch: After experiencing the lows of being placed on the transfer list last season, Willian José will be hoping his 17th goal for Betis is a turning point in his career. One indication will be whether he can end a drought of eight appearances without scoring against Atlético since 2018/19. One man who has a proven track record in this matchup is Yannick Carrasco, having opened the scoring in two of his last five H2Hs.
Hot stat: Despite their dominant overall record, Atlético led at half-time in only one of the last 11 H2Hs (FT: W8, D2, L1).