Espanyol vs Almeria Prediction - Will Espanyol Sink The Visitors Even Deeper In The League Table?

Next Sunday, Espanyol will measure forces against an Almeria side at risk of being relegated at Estadi Cornellà-El Prat for round 35 of Liga BBVA on what will be a match of paramount importance for the visitors if they still want to hold on to their hopes of playing at the Spanish football top tier next season.

Espanyol are currently not enjoying a good moment at La Liga as the team has failed to win any of their last four matches. The Catalan side lost to Real Sociedad at Anoeta last weekend on a match that Espanyol could, in fact, have won if it wasn’t for the goal chances the team failed. The team’s manager (Javier Aguirre) was clearly desolated at the end of the match as he felt his side could have walked out from Anoeta with a win in their bags.

Next Sunday’s match against Almeria might constitute a good opportunity for Espanyol to put an end to their negative row of results and grab the much desired win.

For the match against Almeria, Javier Aguirre will probably not be able to rely on the Spanish midfielder Abraham Gonazález and on the Mexican defender Hector Moreno, who are currently sidelined due to injury.

As for their opponents Almeria, these are, in fact, very dark times at La Liga. The Andalusian team comes from a very negative row of matches with four consecutive defeats and they remain second from bottom at the league table.

Last weekend, they were surprised by a mighty and well organized Celta de Vigo at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos and extended their row without wins to five matches. Almeria need to find a way and the enough motivation to grab ten points in the last four matches if they still want to dream of playing at La Liga next season. Francisco Rodríguez’s side is Liga BBVA’s team with the greatest number of goals conceded in the second half of the matches (43 allowed so far), what might explain their current position at the table.

For next Sunday’s match against Espanyol, Francisco Rodríguez will probably still not be able to count on the Argentinean centre back Marco Torsiglieri, who is still recovering from a recent injury, while the Spanish midfielder Márcos Tebar will miss the match due to suspension.

When both sides measured forces at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos back in December, the match ended in a boring 0-0 draw. Next Sunday, despite the less positive moment from Espanyol, it is not likely that Almeria will manage to find a way to clinch a victory at Estadi Cornellà-El Prat.

Espanyol

Stats: W-11 L-15 D-8

Recent Form - WLLDL

Almería

Stats: W-8 L-20 D-6

Recent Form - LWDLLLL

Possible Line-ups

Espanyol (4-4-2) - Casilla - J. López - Colotto - Sidnei - Fuentes - D. López - V. Sanchez - Pizzi - Simão - J. Córdoba - S. Garcia

Almería (4-2-3-1) – Esteban, Rafita, Trujillo, Marcelo Silva, Mané, Azeez, Verza, Suso, Soriano, Vidal, O. Díaz

Prediction

Espanyol 2 Almeria 1