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Almeria braced for baptism of fire when Real Madrid come to town

UD Almería vs Real Madrid - 14/08/2022

11/08/22
Almeria braced for baptism of fire when Real Madrid come to town
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Newly-promoted Almeria will be hoping to avoid embarrassment when they host reigning La Liga champions Real Madrid on Sunday night.

Real Madrid won the La Liga title with ease last season. Naturally, they will be looking kick off their title-defending campaign on a positive note.

Meanwhile, Almeria gained promotion from La Liga 2 last term – clinching the second-tier titles thanks to their superior goal difference. Can they remain in the top flight?

Almeria lost just nine of their 42 league games last season, picking up 24 wins and nine draws in the process.

Not only did they post the best defensive record in the division, but they also ended up with the second-best offensive record.

Almeria last featured in La Liga back in 2014/15. However, they finished second from bottom that season after losing 22 of their 38 games.

It goes without saying that Almeria must improve on their last top-flight campaign if they want to avoid relegation this time around.

As for Real Madrid, they lost just four of their 38 league games last season – securing 26 wins and eight draws along the way.

The champions scored 80 La Liga goals last term (2.1 goals per game), with Golden Boot winner Karim Benzema netting 27 goals in 32 appearances.

Thanks to a stellar end to the previous campaign, Los Blancos have only suffered three defeats in their last 30 La Liga outings.

On Wednesday, Real Madrid kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup – with Benzema scoring his 324th goal for the club.

Head-to-head: Unfortunately for Almeria, they have failed to win any of their previous ten league meetings with Real Madrid.

To make matters worse for the newly-promoted side, they have conceded at least three goals in each of their past five defeats to Los Blancos.

Team news: Almeria look set to start the season without injured trio Juanjo Nieto, Ivan Martos and Arnau Sola.

Federico Valverde started alongside Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior in Wednesday’s Super Cup, meaning the Uruguayan is likely to retain his place in Sunday’s starting XI.

Although Almeria will be confident of causing an upset on their La Liga return, Real Madrid have more than enough firepower to dispatch the newcomers.

Forebet predicts that Real Madrid will score over 2.5 goals on their way to seeing off Almeria.

Home team
Away team
Probability %
1X2
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
Es1
141670
2
1 - 3
3.42
30°
1.40
7.50 4.50 1.40 no no no
FT
1 - 2(1 - 0)
-
- - -
La Liga
OVERALL TABLE PTS GP W D L +/-
1
Real Madrid 81 32 25 6 1 48
2
Barcelona 70 32 21 7 4 27
3
Girona 68 32 21 5 6 27
4
Atlético Madrid 61 32 19 4 9 21
5
Athletic Bilbao 58 32 16 10 6 22
6
Real Sociedad 51 32 13 12 7 12
7
Real Betis 48 32 12 12 8 2
8
Valencia 47 32 13 8 11 1
9
Villarreal 42 32 11 9 12 -4
10
Getafe 40 32 9 13 10 -6
11
Osasuna 39 32 11 6 15 -9
12
Sevilla 37 32 9 10 13 -4
13
Las Palmas 37 32 10 7 15 -9
14
Deportivo Alavés 35 32 9 8 15 -10
15
Rayo Vallecano 34 32 7 13 12 -12
16
Real Mallorca 31 32 6 13 13 -12
17
Celta Vigo 31 32 7 10 15 -10
18
Cadiz 25 32 4 13 15 -23
19
Granada CF 18 32 3 9 20 -28
20
UD Almería 14 32 1 11 20 -33

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