Sunday Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga predictions & free football tips

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for the weekend matches in Europe.

Best bets

Empoli 2pm
2pts 31-20 Betfair

Over 3.5 goals in Freiburg v Bayer Leverkusen2.30pm
2pts 13-8 bet365

Real Madrid to win 1-08pm
1pt 8-1 general

Preview

Empoli have won five of their first eight away matches in Serie A this season, including 1-0 victories at Juventus and Napoli, and they can extend their excellent road record at struggling Spezia.

The hosts have lost all eight of their league games against teams who, like Empoli, started the weekend in the top half of Italy's top division and their confidence took another dent in the Coppa Italia this week.

Spezia were beaten 2-0 at home by Serie B side Lecce in the cup, while Empoli progressed thanks to a 4-3 victory at top-flight Verona, and that was the fourth time in five fixtures that Spezia had been beaten to nil.

Empoli showed their defensive grit in their most recent Serie A away trip as they claimed a narrow victory at highflying Napoli, who had six shots on target to their visitors' five, and they should be too strong for Spezia this weekend.

In the Bundesliga, another exciting game involving Bayer Leverkusen is on the cards when they travel to Freiburg.

Leverkusen beat Celtic 3-2 in the Europa League last month and their last four league fixtures have produced wins over Leipzig (3-1) and Greuther Furth (7-1), a 5-2 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt and a 2-2 draw at home to Hoffenheim on Wednesday.

Coach Gerardo Seoane saw the best and the worst of his side against Hoffenheim as red-hot Czech striker Patrik Schick's brace put them 2-0 up in a wide-open contest before Hoffenheim hit back with goals in the 80th and 83rd minutes.

Freiburg drew 0-0 at Union Berlin last time out but they are no strangers to a high-scoring game themselves. In four of their previous five Bundesliga matches they had conceded at least twice and the exception was a remarkable 6-0 away win at Borussia Monchengladbach, where they scored all six goals in the first 37 minutes.

Real Madrid's La Liga game against Cadiz is set to go ahead despite several Real players testing positive for Covid-19 this week.

That has disrupted Carlo Ancelotti's plans for the league leaders but they are on a ten-game winning streak in all competitions since a goalless draw at home to Osasuna in October.

Five of their last six victories have been to nil and it could be worth having a small correct-score bet on a 1-0 home win against a Cadiz side who have scored just 15 times in 17 league matches this term.

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