Espanyol are capable of making this a very tough match for Real Madrid, and they beat the champions 2-1 in the reverse game last term. The Catalan side are yet to get going this season, though, and we are expecting Ancelotti's team to collect all three points courtesy of a narrow win.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Real Madrid win with a probability of 58.54%. A draw had a probability of 22.7% and a win for Espanyol had a probability of 18.76%.
The most likely scoreline for a Real Madrid win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.66%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.64%) and 1-2 (9.85%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.79%), while for a Espanyol win it was 1-0 (5.92%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 6% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Real Madrid would win this match.
-0.47) 
0.59) 
