Friday Football Tips: Get set for card chaos in La Liga

Featuring two dirty teams and a strict referee, we've got real potential for card chaos in Friday night's game in La Liga.

Levante sit second bottom of the fair-play table, having received a league-high five red card (and 57 yellows), while hosts Getafe are just one place better off and have a long-standing reputation for ill-discipline.

The official in charge, Alejandro Muniz Ruiz, is the second-best carder in Spain's top flight, averaging more than six cards per game.

In this season's only meeting with Getafe, he booked no fewer than seven of their players in a match which saw 11 cards in total. And when his path crossed with that of Levante, he showed them four cards in a game featuring eight in all.

Basement-dwellers Levante will be desperate for points given their predicament and they'll surely be targeting something from this game against a fellow bottom-five side.

In short, there's an awful lot to suggest this game will be peppered with cards. The only question is how to approach it.

You could try to play safe by backing the usual card suspects such as Getafe's Damian Suarez, who now has been carded in 63 of 150 appearances since Getafe's return to the Primera Division.

However, you won't be surprised to know that there are plenty of short prices around with Suarez just even money here.

Instead my approach will be to target longer-priced players in the 'shown a card' market as there appears every chance of many being carded here.

The two who stand out are Djene Dakonam and Roger Marti.

Getafe defender Djene is up at 7/2 despite having seen six cards in his last 16 games. And it's not as if that's an anomaly - he had eight cards across last season and in 2018/19 a whopping 16.

Levante forward Marti has La Liga's joint highest foul count and while forwards are often picked up for relatively 'low grade' fouls, the fact is that Marti has been carded five times in just 17 appearances this season.

Put the pair in a double and it pays more than 16/1.

I'll happily back that with half the stake but I also can't resist backing Pepelu in the Levante midfield.

He's another with a high foul count - over two per game to sit fourth in the league's fouls-committed chart - and has been booked in six of 12 league appearances this term. Whittle that down to league starts and it's five in nine.

Pepelu will be at the heart of the battle and 15/8 about him being carded looks big, even as a single.

The treble - which I'll back with the other half of the stake - is close to 48/1.

La Liga: xG tips for this weekend's Spanish action!