LaLiga predictions and predicted lineups, matchday 4: Betis vs Real Madrid on Friday, Valencia vs Barcelona on Sunday

LaLiga opened matchday 4 on Thursday night with Real Sociedad against Celta, and ten games run from Friday to Monday. Two of them get watched everywhere — Betis vs Real Madrid and Valencia vs Barcelona — and a third counts just as much inside Spain: Athletic vs Atlético.

It is also the division whose face has changed most in Europe: this season it contains Racing Santander, Deportivo La Coruña, Málaga and Elche, names that had been away for years.

Friday and Saturday

Betis vs Real Madrid opens at 19:00 on Friday. Real Madrid arrive at the Villamarín with Vinícius and Mbappé ahead of Bellingham; Betis answer with Antony and Cucho Hernández. Our read: fewer than 4.5 goals.

At 14:15 on Saturday it is Athletic Bilbao vs Atlético Madrid, San Mamés against Simeone's 4-4-2 with Ademola Lookman on the left. We say Atlético to score at least once.

Then Rayo Vallecano vs Racing Santander at 16:30 (fewer than 4.5 goals) and Villarreal vs Deportivo at 19:00, with Aubameyang back in Spain on the other side (at least two goals).

Sunday

The main event is at 14:15: Valencia vs Barcelona at Mestalla. Valencia set up in a 5-3-2, Barcelona come with Pedri, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha. Our read does not have the hosts winning: draw or Barcelona.

Two games at 16:30: Málaga vs Levante (fewer than 4.5 goals) and Alavés vs Osasuna, where we say Alavés to score at least once. Espanyol vs Sevilla closes it at 19:00 (at least two goals).

Monday

Getafe vs Celta Vigo at 17:00 (fewer than 3.5 goals) and Elche vs Real Sociedad at 19:30 (fewer than 4.5 goals). Those are the two clubs who opened the round on Thursday and now close it against other people: Celta and Real Sociedad play twice in five days.

The predicted lineups, game by game

Real Betis - Real Madrid

Real Betis (4-2-3-1)
Álvaro Valles, Héctor Bellerín, Diego Llorente, Natan, Fran García, Facundo Bernal, Marc Roca, Antony, Pablo Fornals, Rodrigo Riquelme, Cucho Hernández

Real Madrid (4-2-3-1)
Thibaut Courtois, Denzel Dumfries, Ibrahima Konaté, Dean Huijsen, Marc Cucurella, Federico Valverde, Bernardo Silva, Arda Güler, Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé

Athletic Club - Atlético Madrid

Athletic Club (4-2-3-1)
Unai Simón, Jesús Areso, Aitor Paredes, Aymeric Laporte, Yuri Berchiche, Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta, Beñat Gerenabarrena, Robert Navarro, Oihan Sancet, Álex Berenguer, Iñaki Williams

Atlético Madrid (4-4-2)
Jan Oblak, Marcos Llorente, Marc Pubill, Dávid Hancko, Alejandro Grimaldo, Giuliano Simeone, Pablo Barrios, Morten Hjulmand, Ademola Lookman, Kang-in Lee, Alex Baena

Rayo Vallecano - Racing Santander

Rayo Vallecano (4-3-3)
Dani Cárdenas, Iván Balliu, Florian Lejeune, Pathé Ismaël Ciss, Adrià Pedrosa, Óscar Valentín, Unai López, Gnangoro Bouaré, Jorge de Frutos, Sergio Camello, Álvaro García

Racing Santander (4-2-3-1)
Julen Agirrezabala, Alvaro Mantilla, Pedro Felipe, Facundo González, Jorge Salinas, Matteo Prati, Iván Martín, Pablo García, Sergio Canales, Iñigo Vicente, Yassir Zabiri

Villarreal - Deportivo La Coruña

Villarreal (4-4-2)
Luiz Júnior, Alexander Freeman, Pau Navarro, Renato Veiga, Carlos Romero, Nicolas Pépé, Santi Comesaña, Pape Gueye, Alberto Moleiro, Gerard Moreno, Georges Mikautadze

Deportivo La Coruña (4-4-2)
Leo Román, Ximo Navarro, Lucas Noubi, Bright Ede, Giacomo Quagliata, Mario Soriano, Luismi Cruz, Lorenzo Amatucci, Riki Rodríguez, Bil Nsongo, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Valencia - Barcellona

Valencia (5-3-2)
Stole Dimitrievski, Pablo Maffeo, Arnau Martínez, César Tárrega, Mouctar Diakhaby, José Luis Gayà, Filip Ugrinić, Javier Guerra, Pepelu, Arnaut Danjuma, Ryunosuke Sato

Barcellona (4-2-3-1)
Joan García, Eric García, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín, Xavi Espart, Marc Bernal, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Fermín López, Anthony Gordon, Raphinha

Alavés - Osasuna

Alavés (5-3-2)
Antonio Sivera, Ángel Pérez, Nahuel Tenaglia, Ville Koski, Jonny Otto, Abderrahman Rebbach, Pablo Ibáñez, Antonio Blanco, Denis Suárez, Aitor Mañas, Lucas Boyé

Osasuna (4-2-3-1)
Sergio Herrera, Iñigo Arguibide, Enzo Boyomo, Alejandro Catena, Abel Bretones, Jon Moncayola, Iker Muñoz, Jonathan Dubasin, Rubén García, Moi Gómez, Ante Budimir

Malaga - Levante

Malaga (4-4-2)
Alfonso Herrero, Carlos Puga, Ángel Recio, Einar Galilea, Rafa Garrido, David Larrubia, Dani Lorenzo, Izan Merino, Joaquín Muñoz, Carlos Dotor, Chupete

Levante (4-1-4-1)
Mathew Ryan, Nacho Pérez, Adrián de la Fuente, Aïssa Mandi, Manuel Sánchez, Oriol Rey, Roger Brugué, Enzo Bardeli, Jon Ander Olasagasti, Thiago Fernández, Iván Romero

Espanyol - Siviglia

Espanyol (4-4-2)
Marko Dmitrović, Omar El Hilali, Leandro Cabrera, Unai Núñez, Roger Hinojo, Álex Calatrava, Urko González, Edu Expósito, Tyrhys Dolan, Javier Hernández, Roberto Fernández

Siviglia (4-2-3-1)
Odysseas Vlachodimos, Juan Iglesias, Andres Castrin, Kike Salas, Gabriel Suazo, Lucien Agoumé, Giorgi Kochorashvili, Miguel Sierra, Jon Guridi, Peque Fernández, Robbie Ure

Getafe - Celta Vigo

Getafe (4-4-2)
David Soria, Kiko Femenía, Djené, Zaid Romero, Johan Mojica, Alberto Risco, Francho Serrano, Orel Mangala, Ramón Terrats, Enes Ünal, Martín Satriano

Celta Vigo (3-4-3)
Ionuț Radu, Javi Rodríguez, Carl Starfelt, Abdoulaye Faye, Álvaro Núñez, Aleix Febas, Ilaix Moriba, Sergio Carreira, Williot Swedberg, Hugo González, Ferrán Jutglà

Elche - Real Sociedad

Elche (5-4-1)
Matías Dituro, Buba Sangaré, David Affengruber, Víctor Chust, Pedro Bigas, Germán Valera, Facundo Buonanotte, Gonzalo Villar, Marc Aguado, Ali Houary, Fernando Niño

Real Sociedad (4-4-2)
Álex Remiro, Jon Aramburu, Igor Zubeldia, Jon Martin, Sergio Gómez, Luka Sučić, Beñat Turrientes, Carlos Soler, Ander Barrenetxea, Orri Óskarsson, Mikel Oyarzabal

Predicted lineups can change until an hour before kick-off, when the official teamsheets are released.

The individual calls

The most direct is Kylian Mbappé at the Villamarín: to score or assist. Then Lamine Yamal on shots on target at Mestalla and Fermín López on fouls in the same game.

The rest: Lookman in Bilbao, Sergio Camello for Rayo, Mikautadze for Villarreal, Budimir for Osasuna, Iván Romero for Levante, Edu Expósito for Espanyol and Orri Óskarsson. All of them start in the predicted lineups.

Then we count them

When the round closes we publish the tally with nothing removed. The full record of every settled call is in the results history.

Our analysis stays updated until kick-off on the LaLiga page, and the individual calls are in the Player Predictions section.