Next Saturday, 20th of December 2014, a rejuvenated Valencia team will visit the Basque Country to measure forces with La Liga’s newcomers Eibar at Ipurua Municipal Stadium for round 16 of the Spanish Liga BBVA, on a match where the visitors will need to dig very deep if they want to snatch the three points.

After four consecutive league matches without a single win, the new Valencia of Nuno Espirito Santo returned to wins last weekend against an incosistent Rayo that sucumbed at the hands of Los Che for the second time in just 10 days. Regardless of their solid 3-0 win, Valencia experienced some complicated periods throughout the match, especially on the last twenty minutes after André Gomes was sent off. An almost vintage first-half performance was what gave Los Che that much needed win, as they netted in all their three goals in the first 36 minutes of the match. Two goals by Feghouli and another by Piatti were enough to secure the three points and restore some of the confidence the team had lost over last month.

Valencia’s two consecutive defeats during November against Levante and Barcelona offered some reasons for the media to start speculating on Nuno’s leadership skills and Valencia’s excellent season start, but the truth is that everything appears to be in “peace” at Los Che’s kingdom and judging from what they have achieved so far this season, there aren’t definitely any reasons to bring last season’s ghosts back to life.

Next Saturday’s clash at the Basque Country against Eibar will definitely be a very complicated one and, for that particular match, the young Portuguese manager will not be able to rely on the contribution of his fellow countryman André Gomes, who is suspended.

As for Eibar, the Basque team has been having a fantastic career at La Liga so far and it is fair to say that they probably are one of the most interesting Spanish teams at the current moment. Last weekend, the Armeros granted an excellent draw at Sanchez Pizjuan against UEFA Europa League holders Sevilla and reached Celta on the 8th place of the table.

The La Liga newcomers are on a two-match row without defeats and they will certainly try to get Valencia to hell and back next weekend.

Despite Eibar’s excellent stint so far this season, Valencia are favourites for the upcoming clash.

Eibar

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - DWLWL

Valencia

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WDWLL

Possible Line-ups

Eibar (4-2-3-1) - Irureta - Bóveda - Castellosa - Navas - Castellano - Errasti - Garcia - Abraham - Capa - Arruabarrena - Piovaccari

Valencia (4-3-3) - Diego Alves - Gayá - Otamendi - Mustafi - Barragan - Javi Fuego - Parejo - De Paul - Piatti - Feghouli - Negredo

Prediction

Eibar 0 Valencia 1