Almeria vs Real Bétis Prediction - A Vital Match For Los Almeriensistas

Next Sunday, Almeria will take on an already relegated Real Bétis at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for round 36 of Liga BBVA on what will be a match of capital importance for the home side.

After last week’s surprising win against Espanyol, Almeria managed to change places at the bottom of the table with Valladolid and are now third from bottom, two points below Getafe that are currently at the 17th place. Until last Sunday, Almeria were on a five match run without a single win, losing four of those respective matches. The Andalusian side’s next two matches (after next weekend’s clash against Real Bétis) are far from being easy as they will measure forces first with Granada and then with Athletic Bilbao.

Concerning Almeria’s next match and judging by both sides’ recent performances, Almeria will have an excellent opportunity to return to victories at home after it has been more than a month since they got their last victory (against Real Sociedad).

For the match against Real Bétis, Francisco Rodríguez will not be able to count on the Spanish midfielder Verza, who is yet to be fully recovered from his recent injury.

As for Real Bétis, their next Andalusian derby against Almeria will just be for the sake of it, since they were already relegated last weekend after their home defeat against Real Sociedad.

It was definitely a season to forget for Real Bétis: three different head coaches, unconvincing performances, financial problems, altercations between the manager and the players and, to be fair, a notorious deal of bad luck. Nothing seemed to run smoothly for the Béticos this season and this was by far the worst season in their history at La Liga.

For their clash against Almeria, Gabriel Calderón will not be able to count on Guillermo Sara, who was suspended by the club after an alleged altercation with the Argentinean manager, while he will probably also not be able to rely on Nono (who will apparently miss the rest of the season), Chuli, Didac Vilà, Salva Sevilla, and Xavi Torres, all sidelined due to injury.

When both sides met at Benito Villamarín back in December, Almeria grabbed a narrow 1-0 win thanks to an early goal from Ramon Azeez. For next Sunday’s match Los Rojiblancos will certainly try to take advantage from all the problems of Real Bétis in order to repeat their  win last December.

Almería

Stats: W-9 L-20 D-6

Recent Form - LLLLW

Real Bétis

Stats: W-5 L-23 D-7

Recent Form - LLLLL

Possible Line-ups

Almería (4-1-4-1) – Esteban, Rafita, Trujillo, Marcelo Silva, Mané, Azeez, Corona, Suso, Soriano, Vidal, O. Díaz

Real Bétis (4-3-3) - Adán - Molina - Perquis - Paulão - Chica - Ceballos - N’Diaye - Reyes - L. Batistao - R. Castro - J. Molina

Prediction

Almeria 2 Real Bétis 1