Saturday Bundesliga and La Liga predictions & free football tips

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

Best bets

Rayo Vallecano1pm
2pts 4-5 general

Hoffenheim2.30pm
2pts 21-20 Coral, Hills

Union Berlin2.30pm
2pts 29-20 Coral

Preview

Alaves' season hit a new low on Tuesday night when they suffered Copa del Rey embarrassment at Linares, which hardly augurs well for their visit to fortress Rayo Vallecano in the Primera Liga.

Alaves, who lost their first five league matches and after a mini-revival are now four games without a win, have been abject travellers throughout 2021.

Javi Calleja's men have won just twice away in the league since November 2020 and it's clearly not just in La Liga where travel sickness sets in.

On Tuesday they headed south to Andalucia to take on third-tier opponents Linares in the Copa and while Calleja made changes, he also started with Florian Lejeune, Toni Moya and Pere Pons and called bags of ammunition off the bench. They lost 2-1.

Twenty-four hours later Rayo were handed a test of their own in the same competition but came through, winning 3-1 at Bergantinos.

Back on home soil, Rayo are formidable. Since winning promotion, Andoni Iraola's outfit have played eight La Liga games in front of their own fans, winning seven (including a 1-0 win over Barcelona) and drawing the other.

Hoffenheim, one of the Bundesliga's most in-form sides, should be able to take care of Monchengladbach, one of the section's strugglers.

Hoffenheim had won four in a row prior to Wednesday's trip to Leverkusen, where they showed another side of their game, scrapping back from two goals down to draw 2-2 courtesy of late efforts from Angelo Stiller and Munus Dabbur.

Only the big three above them have scored more goals than Hoffenheim, and that's a concern for Gladbach, who can't stop shipping.

The Foals have conceded 17 times in their last four matches – all defeats – culminating in Wednesday night's 3-2 home loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, who played the last 20 minutes with ten men.

After suffering the indignity of being the only team this term to lose to Greuther Furth, Union Berlin followed up with a decent 0-0 draw at home to Freiburg, who are going well.

They can sign off for the winter break by landing the odds at Bochum, a hit-and-miss outfit who concede an unhealthy amount of chances because their games are so open.

Bochum allow more than 15 shots per game – only Stuttgart are more generous – yet have let in only 25 goals, a freakish return in which they have been indebted to keeper Manuel Riemann.

Sooner or later their good fortune will run out and Union are more than good enough to take advantage.

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