Spanish football 27-29 August 2010

[rcgills]

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[rcgills]

For some reason the Primera doesn't appear in the list to add the odds, so can't add them in.

Anyway, season starts on Friday, and there are a few bets that take my fancy. Going to have to be fairly quick about this though, not really got much time this week.

Primera:

Racing Santander (+0.5) v Barcelona @ 4.4 (Bet365) 5pts

Actually placed this bet nearly a month ago now, and the "Additional asian handicap" market seems to have disappeared since then .

Have to admit I'm not entirely sure now why I've got 5pts on this, and can only think I must've accidentally pressed the wrong keys when entering my stake, as while I think it's a good bet, I wouldn't have staked that much on it, but still, too late now .

Barcelona's pre-season preparations were disrupted by the fact that 8 of their squad (Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Pedro and Villa) inconveniently went and won the World Cup, and so didn't even return to training until the 9th August.

They often start the season sluggishly, especially away from home. 2 years ago they lost their opening game 1-0 away to newly-promoted Numancia, the year before that they were held 0-0 in Santander, and 2 years before that they drew their opening game 0-0 away to newly-promoted Alaves.

Reckon this one's got the potential to finish a draw.

Segunda:

There are two teams I've backed ante-post in this division, and I'm going to go with them both to get off to a decent start.

Girona v Tenerife (-0.25) @ 2.1 (Bet365) 3pts

Tenerife (who I've backed for the title @ 6/1 with Stan James) have had a decent pre-season, beating Zaragoza and Mallorca among others in friendlies (both of whom had a decent side out). They've made some decent signings, their manager is one with recent experience of getting promoted to the Primera (with Numancia a few years back), and in Nino they've got one of the best strikers in the division.

Girona had one of the worst home records in the division last year, were beaten 7 times at home (only 3 teams lost more). They've also had a poor pre-season, they've lost 3 of their last 4 friendlies, 2 away to lower league teams, and one at home to Barcelona B (from the same division). I'd be surprised if they cause Tenerife too many problems in this one.

Betis v Granada X2 @ 2.1 (Sporting Odds) 1.5pts

The other side I've backed ante-post are Granada, as a local bookie (Victoria, for anyone in Madrid or the Basque country who may be interested, I believe those are the only regions where they have shops) were offering truly ridiculous prices (or at least they were at the beginning of August, not sure if they still are) - 74/1 for the title, and 14/1 to be promoted (and bearing in mind they've introduced a playoff system this year, that means they still have a chance of promotion if they finish 6th). As a comparison, the best price currently available online (according to Oddschecker) is 25/1 with William Hills.

Anyway, Granada are owned by the same people that own Udinese, so Udinese have been signing decent players on their behalf, then sending them out on loan to Granada. Among the players Granada have on loan from Udinese this year are Jonathan Mensah (played 3 games in defence for Ghana during the World Cup), Orellana (Chilean international, didn't impress that much during the World Cup, but impressed me whenever I saw him last year when he was at Xerez), Muriel (a promising young striker from Colombia), Carlos Calvo (35 games last season in Primera for Xerez) and Geijo (who has a decent scoring record at this level from his time at Levante).

Their squad for this level is pretty strong, and while pre-season results haven't been that impressive, once they gel, I suspect they're going to be contenders for promotion in this division.

Betis should also be up there challenging come the end of the season, but they've lost some important players this year - Sergio Garcia, Mehmet Aurelio, Melli for example - and while they've brought in quality players to replace them, they're also going to take time to gel as a team. They're also under new management, with Pepe Mel joining from Rayo Vallecano.

Also a local derby, and for the opening day of the season, the price is way too short on Betis, especially given the quality of players Granada have available to them, I'm happy to take a chance on the visitors.