La Liga: Malaga- Getafe

I don't know if anyone picked up on those scoring trends that I highlighted ahead of the Copa del Rey game last night, Seviila again scored twice in the "middle third" and were trading at very big odds to win the first half ( 4.0 +) around the 30th minute.

Anyway, this game also throws up some good possibilities. Malaga have been in good form for some time and their only losses in ten starts, have come narrowly at home to Barcelona and away to Sevilla, they are otherwise 5-3-0 in that sequence and have made something of a habit of starting games on top. At home they have a +4 goal difference before the break, they are +/- ) in the second half, they have scored 55% of goals in the first half and conceded 71% in the second.

This is mirrored by Getafe's road form which sees a first half -14 goal difference, just -1 in the second period. They have lost their last two games and conceded nine before the break in four away starts and across all games, they have failed to score in the opening 45 minutes in 7 of 9 .

Malaga travel to play Villarreal (9-2-1 at home) and then host Real Madrid after tonight and will surely be looking to take three points from this to ease pressure going into those tough fixtures.They have won 6 of the last 7 h2h meetings here and surely, they best route to a seventh victory this evening is via a half time lead. Much has been writing about the lack of Malaga goals, but that was early season and they have averaged 1.3 per game over their last ten starts, which is similar to Villarreal and Atletico and Malaga have a similarly mean backline to those two.

1.5 units Malaga -0.5 ball 2.42 First Half betting asian line/Sportmarket.

Good Luck.