Copa del Rey
2013-01-15 - Real Madrid vs Valencia
A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted
Football : Spain : Copa Del Rey
Tuesday, January 15th, 2013, 8:00PM GMT
PREVIEW
Real Madrid and Valencia will binge on each other over the next week or so as they are set to play each other 3 times in a row. The first encounter is a Copa Del Rey 1st leg match, with Real Madrid the home side.
Expect Real Madrid to play this home leg as a cup final, because they absolutely must win so they have a lead to take to Valencia. The reason of course being the truly godawful form Mourinho's defending La Liga champions have shown this year when away from home.
In the previous round, Real Madrid lost 2-1 at Celta Vigo and had to come back and win the 2nd home leg to get through (which they did 4-0 thanks to Ronaldo). Their last 2 La Liga away games have seen them ship 3 and lose in Malaga and most recently blanked 0-0 at lowly Osasuna.
Valencia, on the other hand are enjoying a bit of a purple patch, with 4 straight wins in both La Liga and Copa Del Rey action, scoring at least 2 in each game. They have won 7 of their last 8 matches, the blip being a narrow 1-0 loss to Rayo Vallecano.
That form must be taken advantage of, because if they can get a draw or better here, they have a fantastic chance of moving on to the SF to play either Malaga or Barcelona.
With Ronaldo back in the squad for this match, the obvious bets are on him to score and on Real Madrid to win (too short to bother with) because they are on a 32 match unbeaten run at home in all competitions. But I think we can do better.
BETTING VERDICT
I think you could do worse than a bet on Soldado to score at any time @ 3.75 because he has 8 goals in his last 8 appearances for Valencia.
You could take Both Sides To Score @ 1.73 as a safer option, because while Madrid will surely net, the chances are Valencia will go for this one knowing they must stay close in order to give themselves a chance at home in the next leg.
But I'll combine that with the belief that Real Madrid will find a way to take a lead to the 2nd leg, and we have a nicely priced punt.
The Pick :
Real Madrid 2-1 Valencia
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Real Madrid to win NOT to nil @ 2.50 (Coral)ODDS NOTE :
Coral are the only one of our recommended bookmakers offering this market on this game tonight.
