After almost two week long Christmas holidays, La Liga is back in action this week. The second half of the season is already underway and the race to the top is getting heated with the top two teams sitting at 45 points each after 18 games.
Reigning champions Barcelona are going to start the year 2024 with a match against Las Palmas on Thu 4 Jan, 20:30 GMT.
With 38 points in the bag for the Catalonian club, they are looking to close the gap to the top when they face the team that sits 10th on the La Liga table.
Barca’s canary island visit not only makes up for an exciting game of football but if you want to up the ante and make it an even more exciting prospect, you could always try your hands at betting.
You can bet on the outcome of the game, score, scorers and plenty of other variables as you wish with the sports betting sites allowing you to place a wager at anytime before or even during the match.
With people already being excited for the game, the prospect of making money alongside gives even more of a boost to their enthusiasm.
Key Stats:
If you are interested in trying your hand at betting for the Barcelona game on Thursday, there are plenty of key statistics to keep in mind.
It is an away game for Barcelona and they haven’t lost an away game this season yet. Although out of the 8 games they have won only 3 and drawn 5 of them.
Las Palmas lost the last game vs Atletico Bilbao but at home they have only lost one game out of 8 as of now with a record of 4-3-1 (W-D-L). This is their first top flight run after the 2017/18 season and they are doing pretty well sitting midtable and only conceding 15 goals in 18 games.
Robert Lewandowski is the top scorer for Barcelona with 8 goals and has provided 4 assists in 16 matches this season. For Palmas Marc Cardona is the top scorer with just 2 goals in his bag.
Betting Odds:
There are a number of sports betting sites available now that allow you to place wagers at some given odds. Here are some betting odds for the game from some well known betting sites (at the time of writing the article):
Bet 365 – 19/4 on Las Palmas to win, 10/3 on a draw, 8/15 on Barcelona to win
Unibet – 5/1 on Las Palmas to win, 33/10 on a draw, 1/2 on Barcelona to win
Betfair – 9/2 on Las Palmas to win, 17/5 on a draw, 11/20 on Barcelona to win
BetUK – 21/4 on Las Palmas to win, 17/5 on a draw, 8/15 on Barcelona to win
Other than this there are odds available for correct score predictions, player stats like goal scorer or clean sheet etc. You can check them out on respective sites.
Barcelona has been favoured to win by most sites seeing as they are the current champions and rank much higher at 4th. Keep in mind that Las Palmas has beaten Atletico Madrid already in this season at home.
A draw is a possibility too seeing the defensive record of Las Palmas is on par with the league leaders Real Madrid. Barcelona too have drawn 4 out of last 5 away games. Odds are pretty enticing on that outcome given that the probability is high enough to risk it.
Team News:
Las Palmas are without the injured Alvaro Lemos, while Fabio Gonzalez and Alberto Moleiro are both doubts due to ankle and shoulder problems. Julian Araujo won’t be able to play because of him facing his parent club and hence will be probably replaced by Alex Suarez.
For Barcelona their key figure in Pedri won’t be available for the match with the continuing muscle injury while Ferran Torres and Joules Kounde are in contention to start. Frankie De Jong is back after one game suspension.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Inigo Martinez, Marcos Alonso and Gavi are unavailable anytime soon.
Current form (in all competitions):
Las Palmas: WWWDL Barcelona: LLDWL
Help and Support:
Bet responsibly, stay in control of how much time and money you spend by setting limits and sticking to them.
If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling-related problems, contact the UK National Gambling Helpline.
