Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the Spanish La Liga match.
Las Palmas' poor defence has already conceded four goals in the first two rounds of La Liga, and now they face Real Madrid. This seems like an ideal matchup for the Madrid side, who need to showcase their attacking prowess after two underwhelming league performances.
Las Palmas
In the 180 minutes of the current La Liga season, Las Palmas have allowed 3.69 xGA—only three teams in the tournament have worse records. Against Leganes, who were promoted from Segunda, Las Palmas had a disastrous second half: after Dani Raba missed a penalty, their opponents picked up the pace and scored twice after the 70th minute (1:2). With Fabio González, Adnan Januzaj, and Francisco Pejiño, Luis Carrion would have more options, but they have to manage without them for now.
Real Madrid
After the draw with Mallorca (1:1), Real Madrid lost Jude Bellingham for a month, but they have enough depth to replace him, especially in matches against mid-table teams and lower-tier sides. In attack, the team has no issues: the main initiative comes from Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Júnior. Against Real Valladolid (3:0), Brahim Díaz came off the bench to score 1+1, highlighting the versatile attacking options for the Madrid giants. In that match, Real Madrid produced 1.87 xG from 9 shots on target—they will find it easy to pick up points against teams at the bottom of the table.
Las Palmas - Real Madrid Prediction
Last season, Las Palmas did not trouble Real Madrid on their way to the title (2:0 and 2:1). Madrid will score at least two goals this time as well, and they could even surpass their performance from the last round.
