Thursday Football Tips: Play your cards right in Spain

You get a lot of short prices in La Liga's card markets.

And it's for good reason. To put it simply, the Spanish top flight produces a lot of cards.

This season, games average more than five cards each. To give that some perspective, the equivalent Premier League figure is well under four.

However, some of the player-card quotes do go over the top.

Take Damian Suarez, for example.

The Getafe right-back (or wing-back) has earned a legendary reputation among props bettors for his ability to have his name taken.

He's been carded in 63 of 148 league appearances since Getafe won promotion to the top flight so it's no wonder the layers want to keep him onside.

Even-money quotes should be enough to put punters off, even in a clash like this which sees two of the league's best six teams for cards go head-to-head in a big encounter towards the bottom of the table.

But such pricing isn't universal and don't fall into the trap of thinking there's no value to be had in these markets.

Suarez has been carded in seven of his 18 La Liga appearances this season but so has his defensive colleague Djene Djakonam.

In Djene's case, six of his cards have come in the last 11 games, yet he's available to back as a 7/2 shot.

OK, it's fair to say he doesn't have the same track record as Suarez - then again, who does? - but he has been a pretty regular card collector over the years too. There were eight last season, while if you go back to look at the 2018/19 figures, you'll find the Togo international picked up 16 cards in just 38 games.

In this match, he'll be up against Granada's leading scorer and former team-mate Jorge Molina, so there's plenty of potential in backing a price which looks too big.

Admittedly the referee could be better but Isidro Diaz de Mera Escuderos is only just under the league average for cards and is still showing north of 4.7 per game - that's certainly not going to put us off.

La Liga: xG tips for the weekend's games in Spain