La Liga Matchday 29 Odds & Picks: Back to Business for Barça, Real

• League leaders Barcelona and 2nd-place Real Madrid both returned from the COVID break with a vengeance on Matchday 28, with the former smashing Mallorca 4-0 and the latter coasting past Eibar 3-1
• Barça (-625) are firm favorites at home against Leganes (+1150), while Real Madrid (-256) face an interesting challenge at home against Valencia (+640)
• Get all the odds and best matchups for Matchday 29 in Spain below

The Barça-Real battle for the title remains hot, but other intriguing races are shaping up for European places — just four points separate fourth-place Real Sociedad from seventh-place Valencia — and towards the relegation zone, where three of the five teams are currently between 23 and 27 points will drop to Segunda at season’s end.

Matchday 29 kicks off with Levante (+420) hosting Sevilla (-166), who could create some distance between themselves and Real Sociedad in fourth place with an away win.

La Liga Matchday 29 Odds

All odds taken June 14

Pick 1: Barcelona vs. Leganes

Both Barcelona (19-4-5) and Leganes (5-8-15) are in for a dogfight down the stretch.

Barça have Zidane’s Real Madrid breathing down their necks, while Leganes sit in 19th place and three points back of Celta Vigo and safety.

There is little doubt that Barcelona is the better team, having won six of seven league meetings since Thursday’s hosts earned promotion to La Liga in 2016; all of those meetings have had at least three goals scored.

13 – Lionel Messi has been directly involved in 13 of @FCBarcelona's last 16 goals in @LaLigaEN (six goals, seven assists). Motor. pic.twitter.com/MoVKpfZ34S

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 13, 2020

Barça’s return to the Camp Nou was already likely to feature goals; given their 4-0 thrashing of Mallorca and Leganes’ 2-1 defeat to Valladolid, the form tells us there ought to be some scoring come Tuesday.

PICK: O 3, 3.5 (+101)

Pick 2: Eibar vs. Athletic Bilbao

A hit-and-miss season for Athletic Bilbao (9-11-8) has Gaizka Garitano’s squad sitting tenth place, nearly out of European contention but also well clear of the relegation zone.

Ahead of Wednesday’s clash at Ipurua, Eibar (7-6-15) are hovering a mere two points above the drop zone and need the points much more than their rivals from Basque Country’s big city.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxc5iZWjoV8

Mendilibar’s Eibar are in desperate need of points, and these are hardly heavy-hitting offensive teams — Eibar averaging 1.00 GPG (15th) and Athletic 1.07 (13th).

PICK: Eibar pk, +0.5 (-123)

Pick 3: Real Madrid vs. Valencia

Zidane’s Real Madrid (17-8-3) are no strangers to razor-thin error margins, and trailing Barça by two points is the definition of ‘no margin for error’ for a team with the expectations of Los Blancos.

Dropping points has been a season-long theme for Valencia (11-10-7), and two dropped points against regional rivals Levante last week have left Albert Celades’ squad mired in seventh place.

19 – Marcelo Vieira is the 19th player to score for @realmadriden in @LaLigaEN this season – the most different scorers for a team in the top five European leagues in 2019/20. Power. pic.twitter.com/3geDz2SObV

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 14, 2020

Meetings between the two have historically featured plenty of goals — their last six meetings have seen 20 goals (3.33/game) — making the over/under in this a tasty proposition. Especially factoring in Real Madrid’s explosive first half vs. Eibar last time out.

PICK: O 3 (-115)