A struggling Sporting Gijón side play host to a thriving Eibar at El Molinón on Sunday evening.
Having enjoyed contrasting campaigns so far, these two approach this fixture in dissimilar form. Gijón find themselves involved in yet another relegation scrap, while Eibar continue to perform above what many would say is their station and sit nicely in 10th position.
The home side are without a league win since early September and are hard to fancy from a betting point of view. On the other hand, it’s easy to feel good about Eibar’s chances and the visitors are the team to be with. At odds of 13/8 and 6/4 respectively, ‘Eibar to Win’ and ‘Eibar to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ are two bets worth placing.
With 22 goals to their name, Eibar might not be the highest scoring team, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t found goals fairly easy to come by against certain opposition, especially this opposition. Having met each other in the Copa del Rey recently, Eibar ran out reasonably comfortable winners (5-2 on aggregate) scoring two or more both home and away.
The visitors might have only scored at least twice in two of their eight away matches this season, but they’ve only failed to score twice on the road and, as mentioned above, put two against Gijón on both occasions in the cup, before scoring three away at struggling Osasuna in the next round. Make no mistake about it, José Luis Mendilibar’s side certainly carry an attacking threat and are more than capable of putting lowly teams in their place.
Having beat the drop by just a single point last season, the hosts are once again finding life in Spain’s top flight tough. Put simply, they’re not scoring enough goals and are conceding far too many. Their record of 34 goals conceded is the third worst in La Liga, while their record of 17 conceded at home is a total that can only be beaten by bottom-of-the-pile Osasuna.
One of the positives for Gijón, or one of the negatives depending on which way you look at it, is the fact that they do look to play an attacking game; however, because of the abundantly clear frailties in their back-line, this often leaves them exposed. Having shipped a total of 17 goals, Abelardo Fernández’s team are yet to keep a clean sheet on home soil and have conceded at least twice on five occasions, including in each of their last three at El Molinón.
Whatever way you look at this fixture, the hosts are just too easy to break down and Eibar should have the tools to profit. Backing the visitors to enjoy what would be a third victory of the season over this particular opposition is definitely the way to go.
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