Sportsradar's preview of La Liga gameweek 19 - Part One

Getafe - Malaga:

Before the season not many had believed this was the situation before this game. While Getafe has impressed a lot and is placed safely in the mid table as number 11 after many good performances against the big teams, Málaga is in real danger to go down with just 11 points in 18 games.

Getafe’s game last weekend will be remembered for the Diego Costa-comeback which couldn’t be more typical Diego Costa. A goal, an elbow and a red card for his celebration in a game Getafe lost 2-0. A very heated Madrid-derby where José Munuera had a tough job and booked nine different players, and Diego Costa two times. Away from this, Getafe will get into this game with good confidence and knowing they will be playing at home where they have had a very good form with four wins and one draw in the last five games. They are facing an opponent in crisis that lost on Monday home against Espanyol and the remaining Málaga-fans cheered their manager: «Míchel vete ya», «Michel leave now».

In this game Getafe will miss their injured centerback Djené and midfielder Markel Bergara and Málaga will miss Diego Rolán, Miguel Torres, Juankar, Borja Bastón and Juanpi and Chory Castro is also doubtful for this game. I am expecting Getafe to continue their good season with a win over the hopeless Málaga-team and my prediction is a 2-0 victory. This could also be a La Liga-return for Málaga’s new loansigning Alberto Bueno who has arrived from Porto.

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Girona - Las Palmas:

A very similar game to the previous one. In the first season ever in La Liga, Girona has impressed a lot and has beaten Real Madrid at home at the Montilivi and also earned a 2-2 draw against Atlético Madrid in their first ever La Liga-match. Coming from a 2-1 loss at the Mestalla against Valencia, they now have two losses in a row, but however they will be considered favourites against another club in crisis - Las Palmas.

After the arrival of Paco Jémez, Las Palmas has earned one draw and two losses in three games. They lost 4-0 at the Mestalla where Girona impressed at saturday, but Las Palmas couldn’t. Las Palmas looked completely lost and after Luciano Vietto-hattrick they well deserved was knocked out of the Copa Del Rey. Anyway the elimination doesn’t need to be just bad. Now Paco Jémez and Las Palmas can have their focus on staying up in the league, and that was maybe also a sight we saw in the line-up where players like Jonathan Viera was on the bench the whole game.

This game will probably be an entertaining game with attacking football from the teams of Pablo Machín and Paco Jemez. This game Girona will go into as favourites and it will truly be goals in both ends. Unfortunately Las Palmas had to send their loan-signing Sergi Samper back to Barcelona after the horror injury he had last weekend in the 2-1 loss at home against Eibar. Girona will miss Pedro Alcalá in this game and Las Palmas will be without their right back Michel Macedo, but neither will bring very big consequences. My guess is a 2-1 win to Girona.

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Real Madrid - Villarreal

16 points. 16 points is the difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid when we are entering gameweek 19. Real Madrid is coming from a very entertaining game at the Balaídos which ended in a 2-2 draw after a superp Iago Aspas-performance. Bale is well and truly scoring the two goals, but what has happened with Cristiano Ronaldo?
Four goals coming into this round including two penalties. Into this game Real Madrid will probably still miss Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos, but they will have Dani Carvajal back in the starting eleven.

A big question now is whether the time of Zinedine Zidane is about to coming to and end after this season. Apart from that this is a game Real Madrid should win against a Villarreal-team very unconsistent this season who has had many injuries during the whole season.

This game Villarreal will still miss their captain Bruno Soriano, Ruben Semedo, Roberto Soriano, Nicola Sansone and Andrés Fernández. Their top-scorer Cedric Bakambu is on his way to China for €40M, and Enes Ünal has returned from his loan-spell at Levante after Sansone got injured and Bakambu was ready to leave. This could also be the league-debut for the new loan-striker Roger Martínez from Jiangsu Suning who is set to replace Bakambu.

The big question now is whether Zinedine Zidane's time will come to an end after the season. Apart from that this is a game Real Madrid should win against a very unconsistent and injury affected Villareal-team.

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Eibar - Atlético Madrid

Where to start? Eibar the miracle. The big fairytale continues from the team placed in the Basqueregion. 19 points in the last seven games (!). No team in this league has earned more points than Eibar in this period. Not Barcelona, not Valencia, not Real Madrid and not Atlético Madrid either. Nobody! With a stadium with a capacity of 7000 people and a budget so small, Eibar is living the dream in the third year in a row. Coming from a 2-1 win at the Estadio Gran Canaria, Eibar has now three wins in a row coming into this game against the men of Cholo Simeone knowing that Diego Costa will be out for this game due to suspension.

Atlético Madrid continued their good start to the 2018 with another win against Lleida at Tuesday at the Wanda Metropolitano with a 3-0-victory after a goal from Yannick Carrasco, Kevin Gameiro and the new-signing Vitolo. Antoine Griezmann was rested against Lleida so will definitely be fresh and ready for this game with Filipe Luis and Diego Costa the players missing. Last La Liga-game at the Metropolitano in the Madrid-derby against Getafe was a very special one with the homecoming Diego Costa’s return. A very heated match ended in a 2-0-victory, and the partnership of Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann is beginning to look dangerous for the rest of the season.

Atlético has played pretty good football after Diego came into the team with his passion and hardworking abilities. This will not be an easy game against a strong Eibar-team missing just Fran Rico and Pedro León so I am going for a 1-1 draw at the Ipurua. Maybe Vitolo will make his first La-Liga performance for Atlético Madrid in this game, and looked pretty good against Lleida at Tuesday night.

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Deportivo La Coruña - Valencia

A bottom team vs a top team this season. With only two wins in the last ten games, things are not going that well for the Galician-team. However not everything is full crisis, and they earned a good point against Villarreal at the Estadio de la Cerámica with also a strong performance I would say.

Their star-man Lucas Pérez missed that game and the fans from Depor will definitely hope he will be back for this important match. The promising young Federico Valverde will be back into this game after missing out with illness against Villarreal, but Fede Cartabia will probably miss this game. Luciano Vietto! Not even a single goal in 2017 for Sevilla or Atlético Madrid. In his full debut for Valencia he scored a hattrick and played a absolute great game! If Luciano Vietto gets his confidence and belief back, Valencia have another good striker to compete for the place in the starting XI.

The game against Las Palmas ended in a 4-0 victory and a pretty easy game for «Los Che». They will still be without Carlos Soler and Jeison Murillo in this game at the Riazor, but things is starting to look really good again after some bad performances. This is a very open match between two teams with great attacking football and we will see some goals in this match. It will not be an easy game to win, but Valencia is starting to look good again,
and I think they will take the three points with a 3-2 victory away at the Riazor.

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Part two of this preview will be posted tomorrow, and will include all the remaining matches.

What are your expectations for the fixtures this week?
Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or any feedback you may have. I'm eager to discuss these matches with you.

//Sportsradar