Football Bet of the Day: Strongman Suarez to make his mark

Get ready for a rough ride

Getafe v Sevilla
Saturday 06 February, 20:00
Live on La Liga TV

Everything comes to he (or she) who waits, and our first winner of the week arrived last night, as Sporting covered the Asian Handicap with a 2-0 win at Maritimo. That means we're still in with a chance of making a profit this week.

If tonight's bet lands, the assist stats for the wager will bear the names of Mark O'Haire and Mark Stinchcombe, who both talked about Getafe's propensity for yellow cards on this week's Football Only Bettor podcast. Getafe are facing Sevilla in La Liga this evening, and it could be a pretty brutal affair.

Getafe are, quite frankly, the dirtiest team in the division. They have picked up 67 yellow cards and three dismissals this term, which puts them bottom of the fair play league in La Liga. They were bottom last term too, with 131 yellows and seven reds. Lo and behold, Jose Bordalas's warriors were pretty naughty the season before, with 104 yellows and seven dismissals. That's 17 La Liga red cards in two-and-a-half seasons, a bizarrely high tally.

In every gang of miscreants, there must be a super-villain. Getafe defender Damian Suarez is that villain. He has collected nine yellow cards in 16 league games this term, and his figures in the last few seasons beggar belief. The Uruguyan picked up 15 cautions in the league last season, and if you go back through the last few campaigns, the figures are 13, 14, 7, 11 and 9.

Two final things to note on the booking front. If you look at Sevilla's last ten games in La Liga, their opponents have picked up a total of 33 yellow cards. Also, Suarez will be directly up against Sevilla winger Lucas Ocampos, who has been fouled 56 times this season in La Liga - only Betis's Nabil Fekir has drawn more fouls.

I'm happy to back Suarez to be shown a card at 7/5 on the Sportsbook here, but if he doesn't feature for whatever reason, just back Getafe to pick up over 30 booking points at 5/6. A yellow card is worth ten points, a red is worth 25.