Sunday's Bundesliga and La Liga predictions and free football tips: Los Blancos can edge an entertaining contest

Best bets

Freiburg to beat Cologne
Sky Sports Football, 2.30pm Sunday
1pt 20-23 Betfair

Real Madrid to win & both teams to score v Villarreal
Viaplay Sports 2 & LaLigaTV, 8pm Sunday
1pt 6-4 BoyleSports

Sunday's European football predictions

Girona lead La Liga after 16 matches but Real Madrid will have their sights set on being top at Christmas and can leapfrog the surprise pacesetters, at least temporarily, with a Bernabeu win over Villarreal.

Los Blancos have been dominant on their own patch this season, winning nine of their ten matches while scoring 25 goals, and they completed a perfect Champions League group campaign when coming from behind to beat Union Berlin 3-2 on Tuesday.

Head coach Carlo Ancelotti has had two additional days to prepare for this than his Villarreal counterpart Marcelino as the Yellow Submarine were involved in a 3-2 triumph of their own in the Europa League on Thursday against Rennes.

That was a highly charged contest with top spot on the line and it went right to the wire as Rennes had a last-gasp equaliser ruled out in bizarre circumstances after Enzo Le Fee touched the ball twice in a row from a free-kick after his first effort rebounded off the bar.

Having also played in Europe the week before in a rescheduled contest with Maccabi Haifa, Villarreal could be running on empty for this trip to Madrid.

Real could cut loose but their visitors have scored in eight of their last nine on the road and can bag a consolation goal.

Freiburg relinquished top spot in their Europa League group with a 2-0 defeat to West Ham but the Breisgau Brazilians had claimed three wins on the bounce prior to their trip to east London and can get back to winning ways against struggling Cologne.

The visitors remain in the bottom three in the Bundesliga and, while their results have been improving, their recent performances remain a cause for concern for head coach Steffen Baumgart.

The Billy Goats lost the expected-goals battle 3.64 to 0.87 in a 1-1 draw at Bochum in November then, after losing to Bayern and beating a poor Darmstadt team at the beginning of December, they were again outplayed in last weekend's goalless draw with Mainz.

Freiburg's only home Bundesliga loss this season came against Borussia Dortmund and it will be a surprise if they fail to justify their odds-on status against their shot-shy visitors.

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