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Zaragoza vs Elche Prediction & Betting tips
Traditional duel in the fight to return to the Spanish premier league: On Sunday, the semi-final second leg of the promotion playoffs between Real Saragossa and Elche CF, a duel between two former top division clubs with a long tradition and of course the clear ambition to play in La Liga again .
The first leg of the two on Thursday evening at the Estadio Martínez Valero in Elche ended 0-0, so one would think that there shouldn’t be a favorite before the second leg in Zaragoza, after all, the away goals rule known from the European Cup applies – and Elche could avoid a goal.
However, the view before the game Real Zaragoza vs. Elche on the betting odds of the best betting providers clearly shows that Zaragoza is a clear favorite, as the betting base odds comparison shows.
Real Zaragoza:
The traditional club Real Saragossa has been bobbing around in the second division for seven years now, and the return to Spain’s elite class has been repeatedly missed. For a long time this season it looked extremely good with the safe return of the Blanquillos, up to the 36th matchday they were in 2nd place in the table in La Liga 2.
But then a terrible run destroyed all (direct) hopes for promotion when Saragossa could not win a single one of their six games between the 36th and 41st match day and even suffered five bankruptcies. So the team from Aragon slipped down to fifth place, only a three on the last match day against Ponferradina lifted them back to third place – which at least secured home rights in the second leg against the table sixth.
Now it’s time to play in four additional games in the playoffs, first against Elche and then against the winner from Almeria vs. Girona to enforce, but Zaragoza had to accept bad news when undertaking ascent:
Top striker Luis Suarez, who with 19 goals was the most dangerous striker in Zaragoza and second-best goalscorer in the Spanish 2nd division and thus made a significant contribution to the overall good season, was ordered back to his home club Watford early because the Colombian was only on loan.
In the promotion race, Zaragoza now has to do without the Colombian center forward, a severe weakening that was immediately noticeable in the semi-final first leg against Elche. Because in this Zaragoza acted 70 minutes in excess after Elche’s attacker Jonathas Rot had seen – but the guests could not capitalize on the majority despite clear field superiority, in the end there was zero in front and behind.
Nonetheless, Zaragoza is the clear favorite ahead of the second leg on Sunday at Estadio La Romareda, just like before Real Zaragoza vs. Elche show the odds of the betting providers.
Elche :
The Elche CF’s situation had been really messed up in the last few days and weeks – after all, due to the Corona situation including the cancellation of the game at Fuenlabrada, the team did not know until the end whether they could participate in the playoffs or not.
Fuenlabrada’s last game of the season against relegated Deportivo La Coruña was only made up with a three-week delay, a draw would have even been enough for Fuenlabrada to reach the sixth and final playoff spot, but a penalty in stoppage time made the hopes of the battered team out of the Madrid suburb destroyed – with the 1: 2 Elche was allowed to participate in the promotion round.
There was an early setback in the semi-final first leg against Saragossa when attacker Jonathas – formerly under contract with Hannover 96 – first saw yellow in a confusing tussle, but the VAR switched on and ordered the referee to the screen on the edge of the field. According to the pictures, referee Ruben Avalos Barrera decided on straight-red for Jonathas, but surprisingly the hosts survived the seventy-minute shortfall without damage, so that in the end a 0-0 jumped out.
Not necessarily a bad result, after all, the away goals rule applies in the second leg, but attacker Jonathas will of course be suspended in the second leg on Sunday.
This suspension should also be a reason why Real Saragossa vs. Elche clearly beat the odds of the providers in favor of the home side. A source of encouragement for Elche is the latest home record of Zaragoza, which has lost five of their last six home games – with a whopping 14 goals conceded in these five games.
Zaragoza vs Elche head to head matches
13.08.20 LL2 Elche Zaragoza 0 : 0
15.02.20 LL2 Elche Zaragoza 1 : 2
30.08.19 LL2 Zaragoza Elche 1 : 0
16.03.19 LL2 Zaragoza Elche 1 : 0
28.10.18 LL2 Elche Zaragoza 2 : 0