Next Saturday, 10th of January 2015, a disheartened Celta de Vigo will entertain a super motivated Valencia at Los Balaídos for round 18 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, a match that Los Celestes need to win in order to put an end to their massive rue of consecutive league defeats and after which Valencia also want to clinch the three points to continue with the excellent moment they are currently going through.

The team of Eduardo Berizzo, which started the season at full speed, have recently started to lose that initial enthusiasm, thus entering a critical period with six defeats on the same respective league matches. The last time Celta clinched the three points was precisely at Camp Nou against Barcelona, where after a somewhat vintage performance they sealed a fantastic 1-0 win. From that match onwards, Celta’s campaign has been catastrophic, both on La Liga and on Copa del Rey, for which they were heavily defeated at home by Athletic Bilbao earlier this week.

Berizzo, his players and Celta supporters are living a never ending nightmare and a clash against a highly motivated Valencia may not be the most indicated match to start turning their recent bad luck around. For that particular clash, Toto Berizzo will not be able to rely on the services of the Argentinean centre forward Larrivey and on Planas, both currently suspended.

Despite the recent unimpressive results, Los Celestes keep producing quality attacking football but their lack of goals is definitely causing them big problems.

As for Valencia, they are currently enjoying a fantastic moment. Los Che’s last Sunday’s win over the all-powerful Real Madrid has certainly given them the motivational boost they were looking to carry on with their already long undefeated row. Nuno Espirito Santo is performing a remarkable work at the helm of the Spanish historical team, as he keeps restoring Los Che’s lost glory one round after the other. The arrival of the Argentinean midfielder Enzo Perez from Benfica early this month will most certainly give Nuno plenty more quality and consistency to his already impressive midfield line.

Judging from both teams’ recent results, Valencia are firm favourites for the upcoming Balaídos match, but if Celta manage to find their essence once again after their miserable recent row, they might well show the visitors a hard time and even snatch a win.

Celta

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LLLWL

Valencia

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - WWWDW

Possible Line-ups

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Jonny - Fontas - Gomez - Mallo - Augusto - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Charles

Valencia (3-4-1-2) - Diego Alves - Gayá - Otamendi - Mustafi - Barragan - Javi Fuego - Enzo Perez - Parejo - Feghouli - Paco Alcacer - Negredo

Prediction

Celta de Vigo 1 Valencia 2