La Liga Odds: Celta Vigo Face Real Madrid Once Again

Celta Vigo (+540) vs. Real Madrid (-183), Draw (+385)

Celta Vigo already made their mark on Real Madrid this season after knocking them out of the Copa del Rey last week. They’ll have a chance to add to the damage on Sunday, February 5th, when they meet in the 21st fixture of La Liga.

When the two teams met at the Balaídos for the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinal, Real Madrid were the heavy favorites. They dominated play in the first half and forced Celta Vigo to defend throughout the game. But a quick counter-attack by Célticos led to a fortunate opening goal by Iago Aspas.

Real Madrid quickly bounced back with a goal five minutes later. But Celta Vigo added another seconds after that, when another counter-attack granted Jonny a goal. Real Madrid continued to press but Celta Vigo locked down their defense and held onto the 2-1 lead.

In the second leg, Celta Vigo travelled to Madrid knowing a draw would be enough to see them advance to the semifinals. They fended off a ferocious Real Madrid attack and, with a little luck on their side, managed to score the opener after an own goal by defender Danilo.

Ronaldo levelled the game with one of his signature spot kicks. But the Celta Vigo side, growing more confident, started to press into the Real Madrid half and were rewarded after Daniel Was capitalized on some sloppy defending. Real Madrid levelled the game once again when Lucas Vázquez made it 2-2 in the 90th minute, but by then it was too late. The game ended in a draw and Celta Vigo advanced to the next round.

Before losing back-to-back games to Sevilla and Celta Vigo this season, Real Madrid had been on a 40-game unbeaten streak. The two losses saw them knocked out of the Copa del Rey and put them within reaching distance of Barcelona and Sevilla in the league. Saying that, the last few weeks have been a hit to the team’s near-perfect season.

Celta Vigo have shown in the last couple of weeks they have the ability to go head-to-head with Real Madrid and come out on top. With Célticos beaming with confidence and Real Madrid in a slump, I think it’s definitely worth giving Celta Vigo a chance at +540.

Pick: Celta Vigo (+540)

Photo credit: “pina” by Grodal, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.