Celta de Vigo vs Espanyol Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Dec 09, 2015 @ 01:02 am

Next Saturday, 12th of December 2015, Espanyol will travel to Galicia to measure forces with Celta de Vigo at Los Balaídos for Round 15 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Celta de Vigo didn’t have the best of nights last Saturday during their travel to Andalusia, but in the end they managed to leave Benito Villamarin with one precious point in their bags. The Galician team opened the score in the first-half, when Theo Bongonda sent home a precious assist by Nolito. Despite the lead, Celta were nothing but a shadow of what they used to be and Real Betis was who were in control of the match. After the break, things started to deteriorate for Los Celestes. Jonny, who by the way is going through a very negative period, lost the ball in defence and received a red card for holding Petros, who already was in a glorious run towards Sergio Alvarez’s net. With just ten men, Celta struggled to contain Real Betis’ attacking avalanche and ended up by conceding the equalizer late in the match when Molina sent home a quality assist from Petros.

Nevertheless, it was the Galician team who could have sentenced the match when Daniel Wass, during a quick counter-attack, assisted Nolito, who was alone in the box, but Celta’s sharpshooter failed to overcome Gimenez.

For next weekend’s predictably complicated fixture against Espanyol, Eduardo Berizzo will not be able to rely on the contribution of Jonny, who is currently suspended, and on Radoja, Andreu Fontas and Sergi Gomez, all sidelined due to injury.

As for Espanyol, after being defeated at Vicente Calderón, the Catalan team didn’t manage to get anything better than a 1-1 draw against Levante last Monday night.

It wasn’t by any means an easy match for Los Periquitos, who failed to control the match and had less goal chances than their opponents. A colossal mistake by the Chilean defender Enzo Roco allowed Levante to open the score very early in the match. Espanyol experimented plenty of issues to impose their game but their strong second-half start allowed them to claw the equalizer by the hand of Gerard Moreno.

Espanyol’s last win away from home was back in October and next Saturday they will certainly have to dig very deep to take something positive from their match at Los Balaídos.

Celta de Vigo

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - DWWLL

Espanyol

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DDLWW

Possible Line-ups

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sergio Alvarez - Mallo - Planas - Cabral - Wass - Fernández - Tucu Hernández - Orellana - Bongonda - Aspas

Espanyol (4-2-3-1) - Pau - López - González - Arbilla - Fuentes - Diop - Sanchez - Alvarez - Perez - Asensio - Caicedo

Injury List / Suspended Players

Celta de Vigo - Radoja (inj) - Fontas (inj) - Sergi Gomez (inj) - Jonny (sus)

Espanyol - Enzo Roco (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions