Atletico Madrid vs. Real Betis – LaLiga, October 24, 2020

Following a pair of scoreless draws against Huesca and Villarreal, Atletico Madrid secured a convincing 2-0 road victory over Celta Vigo, keeping the clean sheet for the third time in a row. However, Los Colchoneros suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek, and I don’t remember when they conceded four goals last time. Atletico is in 8th place with eight points from the first four matches in LaLiga.

Real Betis is playing in a hot and cold form this season as they won three and lost three games so far. Interestingly, they kept the clean sheet in each win, while they conceded three goals in each of three defeats, including the most recent one to Real Sociedad at home. After the first six games, Betis is sitting in 7th place with a point ahead of Atletico Madrid, but Diego Simeone’s side has two games in hand.

Check out my Atletico Madrid vs. Real Betis betting pick and get the latest news, stats, and H2H record.

Returning to league action following a 4-0 hammering at Bayern midweek, Atletico Madrid improved their 2020/21 LaLiga win rate as a favorite to 50% with an HT/FT double at Celta Vigo last round, notching up three straight clean sheets in LaLiga competition along the way (W1, D2).

Their previous home match was the 13th of 21 LaLiga home fixtures since the start of 2019/20 to produce two or fewer goals, which sets this game up for yet another low-scoring H2H affair. All but one of the last eight H2H LaLiga duels, including the previous four hosted by Diego Simeone’s side, have provided under 2.5 goals (average 1.25 per game).

Simeone will be without Diego Costa (thigh), Jose Maria Gimenez (muscle), Saul (muscle), and Sime Vrsaljko (knee).

Real Betis is yet to beat any team that’s sitting above them in the standings at the beginning of the round, with two of their three losses coming by a three-goal difference. The visitors continue to struggle to exceed expectations away from home, now having failed to win all 17 LaLiga trips as a traveling outsider (D7, L10) since the start of the 2019/20 campaign.

Having failed to score in six of their previous 11 LaLiga road matches, and after failing to score in their last four LaLiga visits to Wanda Metropolitano, Betis is unlikely to challenge the aforementioned pattern of few H2H goals. Such scoring woes have been especially prominent in the opening half as of those 11 previously mentioned away matches, Betis’ latest victory at Valencia was the only occasion in which they scored a goal in the first 45 minutes.

Manuel Pellegrini cannot count on Victor Camarasa (knee), Andres Guardado (muscle), and Daniel Martin (ankle).

Atletico Madrid won seven of the previous ten H2H encounters (D2, L1), including the last two, while Los Colchoneros were victorious in six of the past seven meetings at Wanda Metropolitano. Betis found the back of the net in just one of the last eight visits here, and given Atletico has the best defense in LaLiga, it’s going to be hard to score on Saturday as well. Each of the previous four H2Hs in Madrid ended Under 1.5 goals, and I don’t expect to see a lot of goals here. Still, I am not going to bet on Over/Under, I am going with Atletico to win.